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A forest fire rages in Satno Antonio do Matupi, Amazonas state, Brazil, August 27, 2019. Photo © Associated Press

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

Earth needs our help. The dual cataclysms of mass extinction and climate chaos are rolling rapidly over the planet, as ecosystems are wiped out for raw material extraction, industrialized agriculture and the built environment.

Native forests are being degraded and eliminated at an ever-increasing rate, with the UN definition of “forests” concealing about half of the destruction.

Materials consumption is increasing rapidly, even given higher rates of recycling, as ‘development’ continues to be the overarching agenda of modern society.

As with the global food system, greater industrialization and mechanization of the extraction, trade and use of wood has led to vastly increasing demand. This has led to an ever-greater separation from the wondrous forests and trees from which wood is derived, and with it a loss of hands-on production, crafting and appreciation of wood as a living component of the grand ecosystem we call Earth.

It’s also led to a massive increase in production of wood, driving greater forest destruction worldwide.

If humans and Earth are to survive, we must embrace forests as living, complex ecosystems and adopt a Slow Wood™ approach to our use of wood and wood-based materials.

The recent push by the forest products industry is for using even more wood in buildings. Photo © Earthbilt

A logging road cuts through African rainforest, Cameroon, May 13, 2016. Photo © Earthbilt

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About Slow Wood®

The Problem with Wood