IT is beginning to feel like the word ‘crisis’ has lost all meaning. In the last few years, I think the majority of us have become rather accustomed to living with chaos and uncertainty, navigating our way through one crisis or another, none of which ever seem to get resolved. Our attention merely shifts elsewhere.

Nightly news bulletins have become less a summary of the day’s events and more a Top of the Pops for catastrophe. There are too many to discuss in detail (much more than a mere Top 10), from COVID to Brexit to climate change and even the looming threat of World War III. You may tune in only to find there isn’t time, among reports on all the impending disasters, for anyone to address the one that matters most to you.

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To many, right now, that’s the so-called ‘cost of living’ crisis. Ordinary people are looking at the rocketing prices of food and fuel (and a government committed to being as unhelpful as possible) and realising they’re about to be driven into poverty. It’s a situation that deserves all the headlines it gets.

However, seeming to get less attention is the ‘cost of working’ crisis, as the soaring price of fuel and commodities, married to stagnant rates, makes it ever-more difficult (even impossible) for the workers this industry relies on to do their jobs.

Forestry Journal: Politicians say all the right words but do they really mean them? Politicians say all the right words but do they really mean them?

We all see prices going up and we all understand the reasons why. But when those with the power to alleviate some of the burden on workers fail to take any action? That I find more difficult to understand.

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Among the many buzzwords to tumble from the mouths of politicians, campaigners and journalists whenever the importance of forestry is discussed is ‘sustainability’. When we look to the future of our environment, our economy and our industry, sustainability is at the heart of everything.

But just how sustainable does anyone expect our current situation to be?