Hurricanes; flooding; rising sea levels; eroding coastlines; changes in the major sea currents; melting ice at the poles and glaciers world wide. All these are indicating we are in for a period of hugely damaging, costly and life threatening climate changes. Such changes may result in the opposite of warming, in the North we could end up under the ice again and possibly quicker than most people realise! At long last, politicians have realised that global warming poses the biggest threat to all our lifestyles. In the case of the UK Government, Tony Blair and other Government representatives are saying that "global warming is our biggest threat". However, his Government and its incompetent Civil Servants have done little to inhibit trade in products from forest or endangered trees. Perhaps people have forgotten that even Government funded buildings were furnished with hardwoods from unsustainable sources. You can't trust politicians to do much about the situation as there are far too many business interests involved. Trees tie up the carbon dioxide which is increasing in the atmosphere at an alarming rate. If allowed to die and decay naturally, this carbon dioxide is released slowly. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and the higher it gets the hotter it gets. Despite all these warning signs, consumers around the world continue to purchase products that originate from our forests or from other endangered long lived trees. In the case of aromatherapy and cosmetics the total yearly volume of oils from such trees is substantial. Other trades also use these products and share the blame, but, aromatherapy is supposed to be a therapy that cares about people. If only one trade would boycott these products others will follow. We can't stop global warming, but can perhaps delay it, giving time to find solutions. Rosewood and other trees are for your children's future and maybe our own. I want to take a slightly different view on conservation to other articles on this subject. I detest it when buzzwords such as 'sustainability' are used without it being spelt out what is really meant. Sustainable harvesting means that the activity can continue indefinitely without resulting in depletion of the species. Many people in this trade will use such words to hoodwink people into thinking they are really nice honest caring people. In the case of some essential oil suppliers the opposite is the truth, all they care about are profits and being able to continue lying to their customers until they retire having made their stash. Oil suppliers in the UK Aromatherapy Trades Council (ATC) and in the USA, are trying to confuse their customers by using buzzwords. Some are claiming that their rosewood oil comes from "sustainable" sources. What they really mean is that they get their oil from 'licensed' producers in the country of origin. A license granted by any agencies where corruption is acknowledged should never be taken as proof that the licensed source is sustainable - see: http://www.worldtwitch.com/brazil_environment.htm The oil traders do not care about anything other than having that magical piece of worthless paper so they can say "well my supplier gave me this so they are at fault not me". In addition to the above, any consumer who really believes that any trade association is going to tell the truth about what their members sell or do is very gullible. As pointed out in other articles on this site, trade associations are there to protect their members business interests, not to provide honest accurate information to the public. There has never been production of rose-WOOD essential oil from plantation grown trees. Therefore, such claims cannot be justified. Read more about this on the web site of Chrissie Wildwood: http://www.chrissie-wildwood.com 'Saving-Rosewood-The-Forest-and-Her-peoples' other articles on her site, and also on the: Cropwatch web site The continual removal of forest cover around the world is solely to sustain greedy uncaring trades, mainly via companies in developed countries. It is a lie that purchasing these oils helps local people earn a living as some aromatherapy traders claim. In reality, in South America as an example, the tendency is to drive native populations out of their traditional lands and for urban workers to take their place as laborer's employed by unscrupulous criminal land barons. Only eco tourism has saved some tribes from extinction, not cutting down their trees, but keeping them for tourists to learn about from the tribes. The other aspect of deforestation is that many medicinal plants are destroyed in the process of extracting the wood. Some of these plants may well hold the drugs needed to cure cancer and other serious illnesses.
Martin Watt, 2004 (updated 2006). Who first wrote against using rosewood oil well over 10 years ago, yet the aromatherapy sellers have continued to sell it, the training schools have continued using it, the teachers still promote its use based on fairy tales in aromatherapy books. A caring trade-what a con trick! See also other articles on this issue in the Articles Archive. Back to Articles Archive Back to Home page Source
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