Environmentalists going off the deep end with "proclamations"

Talk about wanting to micromanage a personal bodily function. From the UK Guardian:
American taste for soft toilet roll 'worse than driving Hummers'
Extra-soft, quilted and multi-ply toilet roll made from virgin forest causes more damage than gas-guzzlers, fast food or McMansions, say campaigners.

The tenderness of the delicate American buttock is causing more environmental devastation than the country's love of gas-guzzling cars, fast food or McMansions, according to green campaigners. At fault, they say, is the US public's insistence on extra-soft, quilted and multi-ply products when they use the bathroom.

"This is a product that we use for less than three seconds and the ecological consequences of manufacturing it from trees is enormous," said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defence Council.

"Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age. Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution." Making toilet paper has a significant impact because of chemicals used in pulp manufacture and cutting down forests.

A campaign by Greenpeace seeks to raise consciousness among Americans about the environmental costs of their toilet habits and counter an aggressive new push by the paper industry giants to market so-called luxury brands.

More than 98% of the toilet roll sold in America comes from virgin forests, said Hershkowitz. In Europe and Latin America, up to 40% of toilet paper comes from recycled products. Greenpeace this week launched a cut-out-and-keep ecological ranking of toilet paper products.
That is, if you will excuse the expression, one of the biggest crocks of shit that I have heard in a long time. Virgin Forests carries the mental picture of towering stands of old-growth timber. Bullshit. These forests have been planted specific for the purpose of pulp production and they are a renewable resource much like a grassland, only with a 10-times longer growing cycle. The webpage of photographer Michael Durham has an excellent photo of a hybrid poplar tree farm with these comments:
Tree Farm Color
The storms currently pounding Oregon and Washington have blasted off the remaining fall leaves giving trees the bare look of Winter. Just a few weeks ago however, I was captivated by the fall leaves at a hybrid poplar tree farm.

These are fast growing trees that are ideal for paper production. If they are processed quickly, the produce a brilliant paper with minimal bleaching.
So, let us say that the greenies get the production of hybrid Poplar shut down and we revert to John Wayne toilet-paper (rough, tough and don't take no shit off anybody). That would be perfect, yes? BZZZZZTTT! NO! This same Poplar is a prime candidate for Cellulosic Ethanol production:
"It allows GreenWood to benefit from the development of the growing market demand for cellulosic-based chemicals and ethanol, while providing ZeaChem with a dedicated long-term cellulosic feed stock source from the leader in intensively-managed hybrid poplar trees."

Hunter Brown, a spokesman for GreenWood Resources, said his company also talked with Pacific Ethanol, which has announced intentions to build a cellulosic ethanol plant near its Boardman plant.

"GreenWood Resources believes that hybrid poplar will be a feedstock of choice for dedicated energy crops, for cellulosic ethanol," he said.
Using Corn as the feedstock in Ethanol production is making a few people very rich but is driving up the price of Corn worldwide to the detriment of the poorer nations. Switching to a non-food feedstock is the right thing to do and these Poplar trees are an excellent choice.

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This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on February 28, 2009 6:46 PM.

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