Product Letter
Rainforest Action Network
Dear Friend,
You literally hold the future of our planet in your hands.
Right now, heedless corporations are cutting down rainforests at the rate of two football fields every second. This massive destruction of habitat will drive six species of plants, animals and insects into extinction in just the next hour.
Over 78 million acres -- an area larger than Poland -- and 50,000 species will forever vanish from the face of our earth over the next year due to deforestation.
But that's just the beginning of what we stand to lose.
With each fallen tree, we diminish the biodiversity of our planet ... speed up the greenhouse effect ... destroy rare plants that may hold cures for diseases like cancer and AIDS ... jeopardize our food supply.
All for telephone books, diapers, and newspapers!
An irreparable tragedy is happening before our eyes, and if we don't act immediately, we all will reap the bitter harvest of a dying planet.
But there is hope -- we know who are the perpetrators of this reckless destruction: Home Depot, Mitsubishi, Burger King and Conoco-Dupont, to name a few. And we know how to stop them.
That's where you come in.
As someone who cares about our planet, we're hoping that you'll want to join us at the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), and make a stand against those who would mortgage our future for a quick profit.
You can help out in a number of ways:
• Buy Recycled Paper or Tree-Free Paper - Look for products made from waste straw, kenaf, and hemp; don't buy old growth or tropical wood products.
• Eat Less Meat - Much of the beef served in fast-food restaurants is raised on rainforests that have been cleared, so "save a tree by eating veggie."
• Write a Letter to Home Depot - This corporate giant is notorious for selling products made from rare rainforest woods and has refused to change its ways (see our newsletter for more information).
You can also help by becoming a member of the Rainforest Action Network.
From Canada's Great Bear Rainforest to the tropical woods of Ecuador, we're fighting to protect what's left of our planet's wild spaces. We're also standing up to irresponsible businesses and short-sighted politicians.
But for us to continue our fight to protect the rainforests -- and our future -- we need your help.
Please accept the enclosed address labels as an invitation to join this most important mission ... and please take a moment to consider the vital role you play in the future of our planet.
Dollar for dollar, RAN is the most effective environmental group, so you
can feel confident that your donation will make a immediate difference. We'll
also send you Action Alerts and World Rainforest Reports,
featuring up-to-the minute news on our efforts.
We are but a strand in the web of life, dependent on the rainforests for our survival. Join us now so that we may weave a brighter tomorrow for us all.
Thank you for your generosity and concern,
Randall Hayes
President
P.S. In the time it took you to read this letter, 720 acres of rainforest -- 600 football fields -- will have been clear cut. Please help us stop the continued destruction of our planet by joining the Rainforest Action Network today!
FORM COPY: Yes Randy, I want to save the rainforests -- and our planet -- by becoming a member of the Rainforest Action Network.
Newsletter
Article #1 - The Rainforest Action Network Launches Membership Drive to Protect Endangered Forests
A frightening fact: everyday 214,000 acres of rainforest -- an area larger than New York City -- is destroyed.
The loss of these old-growth woods, along with the animal and plant-life that lives on this land, is the single greatest threat to future of humanity and our planet. Recognizing this looming disaster, the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has begun a new membership drive in earnest with the introduction of its personalized label program.
These labels, along with beautiful photographs of the rainforest, are being used to raise awareness of RAN's vital preservation efforts and to attract new members. While these labels are gifts of appreciation and are free, RAN is, above all, hoping to increase membership.
Action is our middle name, and all membership dues will be used to protect the rainforest.
Still wondering if your membership will make a difference? Consider: At the present rate of deforestation, nearly all the tropical rainforest systems will be destroyed by the year 2030.
Please join RAN before it's too late.
Article #2 - What's so Important about the Rainforest?
Some people think of the rainforest as a remote and exotic place that has little to do with our lives, but in truth, the survival of the human race depends on these woods.
Home to over half of our planet's living creatures -- over 30 million species of plants, animals, insects -- rainforests are the richest, oldest most productive and most complex ecosystems on earth. They are the "Noah's Arc" of our planet.
By turning carbon dioxide into oxygen, rainforests act as the lungs of the earth. Because of this, rainforests help make our planet habitable for human life, and play a critical role in the fight against global warming.
Rainforest plants have provided drugs for treating diseases such as cancer, Hodgkins disease, hypertension, arthritis, and childhood leukemia. With researchers having only studied 1% of rainforest species for medical purposes, countless cures for other afflictions await our discovery. Yet everyday dozens of types of plants are driven into extinction by human development.
Rice, potatoes, bananas, chocolate, coffee, oranges, tomatoes, yams, and dozens of other food crops originated in the rainforests. The wild strains still found there provide genetic material necessary to keep world agricultural stocks hardy and healthy. Undiscovered rainforest species could provide new sources of food in the future.
So the next time someone says to you that the rainforests doesn't effect them, remind them of all the ways these woods sustain human life.
Article # 3 - Home Depot
If you want to see what's really happening to our rainforests, look no further than the aisles of Home Depot.
As the world's largest retailer selling old-growth and endangered woods, Home Depot is one of the chief culprits in the devastation of the world's rainforests. Hemlock ... cedar ... mahogany -- these and other rare trees are being "harvested" so Home Depot can make chairs, tables, and lawn furniture.
All concerned citizens need to send a message to Home Depot: the wanton destruction of the world's rainforests for profit will not be tolerated.
We invite you to join us in this most important fight by sending the letter on the back of this page (or draft one of your own), to Arthur Blank, president of The Home Depot.
BACK OF NEWSLETTER
Dear Mr. Blank,
It has come to my attention that Home Depot is selling wood taken from the last rainforests in the world.
In this day and age, we no longer kill apes to make ashtrays out of their hands, nor do we kill elephants to make piano keys out of their tusks. It is just as immoral to destroy the habitats of these animals to make decking and plywood out of their homes.
pFor five years, your company has painted itself green and promised to phase out unsustainable wood. You have yet to deliver on these promises.
I call on you to get out of the business of rainforest destruction, and change the world's marketplace by phasing out the sale of wood from old-growth forests. Only your leadership can save the last of the world's rainforests.
Very truly yours,
Name_________________
Address_______________
Back Copy
Rainforest Action Network - Fighting for the Future of the Rainforest and our Planet
Since 1985, the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has been on the front lines of the battle to save the last remaining rainforests of the world. Our strategy for success has been simple: publicly pressure corporations and governments that are plundering the last remaining tracts of wilderness to act responsibly.
Now over 30,000 members strong, RAN has become a leading environmental group in the fight to protect the environment. From our international legislative battles to our local grassroots alliances, the impact of our work can be seen around the globe.
Every day we're working to save an old-growth forest somewhere in the world. But despite our successes, we're still unable to match the wealth of the multinational corporations that seek to exploit the land.
We hope that you will lend your support to this critical cause by becoming a member of RAN.
A History of Victories
In just a few short years, we've been able to save millions of acres of pristine rainforest from destruction. Here are just a few of our recent successes.
• MacMillan Bloedel, one of the most irresponsible clear-cut timber companies, bowed to our pressure and shut down its logging operations in Canada's Clayoqout Sound, an endangered old growth temperate rainforest.
• In a groundbreaking move towards saving the Amazon rainforest, the Brazilian National Congress has placed a moratorium on new mahogany logging for the next two years.
• The government of Ecuador and its oil company, Petroecuador, agreed to stop industrial development in the fragile Cuyabeno National Wildlife Reserve.
• In a move intended to save the rainforest and to alleviate violence against tribal people in Latin America, Barnes and Noble, one of the largest booksellers in the U.S., agreed to use an alternative to mahogany that "does not include uncertified rainforest wood."
• Scott Paper halted investment in a $653 million pulp mill project that would have destroyed 2 million acres of Indonesian rainforest.
With your help, we can continue to sow the seeds for a greener future.
Make A Difference Today - Buy Green
If you see any of the following woods listed on sale, you can be sure that they came from the last ancient forests left standing:
Clear-heart redwood
Greenheart
Ipe
Jelutong
Lauan
Mahogany
Rosewood
Sitka Spruce
Teak
Virol
Western Hemlock
Western Red Cedar.
Fight the destruction of the rainforests by refusing to by products from stores that use these woods!