Endorsements

Professor Yadvinder Malhi
Professor of Ecosystem Science at Oxford University, and a world authority on rainforest trees.

“The last few months of 2009 may be the most important for tropical forests this century, as the world’s leaders and their negotiators gather in Copenhagen to agree a deal to tackle the threat of global climate change. Any effective deal will need to include recognition of the role that preserving tropical forests must play in stabilising the global atmosphere. In this frenzy of activity, the trees of the Ghost Forest stand as sentinels, as silent witnesses to this important time, and perhaps as gatekeepers to a new era that recognises the true value of tropical forests.”

Andrew Mitchell
Founder and Director Global Canopy Programme.

“Without a solution to deforestation, there will be no solution to climate change. Yet it’s hard to convey this to people and politicians living thousands of miles away from tropical regions. Our ‘forest footprint’ though, reaches across the world in the food we eat and the things we buy, sourced on land where rainforests once stood. Emissions from burning trees are greater now than those from all the world’s cars, boats and planes put together. The Ghost Forest in Trafalgar Square will add to the sense of urgency to fix the problem and will reinforce the vital place of forests in the global deal on climate change.”

John Ashton
Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change.

The Ghost Forest project “sounds exciting, and very well timed. The capacity of human beings to insulate themselves from the consequences of their choices – both for other human beings and for the ecosystems on which we all rely – is almost limitless. One of the ideas that led to the foundation of E3G was that we cannot hope to overcome this through didactic communication alone: there is no point in winning the argument if the outcome doesn’t change. We need to reach people in other ways as well. Since the crisis we face is about who we are before it is about what we should do, the role of art will be critical.

So I applaud what you are doing, and wish it success. You will in effect be confronting some of those who pass through Trafalgar Square with the consequence of their choices.”

Peter Ainsworth
MP, Chairman All Parliamentary Group for the Environment.

“The Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen will be seen by our children as a defining moment. Will we, in this generation, have the courage to take the action at home and across the globe which is needed in order to ensure economic, social and environmental wellbeing? This is not about saving the planet – the planet can look after itself – it’s about saving what passes for civilisation. If we look for a single solution to the challenge of climate change, we will look in vain. There are millions of solutions: in our homes; in the workplace; in government policies; and in emerging technologies and enterprise. But beyond the complexity of all of that there remains the simple fact that if we continue to destroy the rainforests our other efforts will fail.

The Ghost Forest is an ambitious, powerful and moving statement of that simple fact.”

Nigel Winser
Executive Vice President and Head of Programs, Earthwatch Institute

“Angela Palmer’s Ghost Forest brings us face to face with the silent symbols of tropical deforestation, at a time when the future of this natural heritage lies in the balance. As the world’s scientists report, every year more and more of the planet’s tropical trees are being replaced by broken and blackened stumps. And in so doing, the ecological, economic and spiritual wealth of this habitat is being squandered. In the developed world, the enormity of the loss still goes unremarked. May those who witness the Ghost Forest installation in London and Copenhagen, engage in the wider debate, learn the facts and decide themselves how to act, when the time comes to be counted.”