Paper Factoids: Deforestation and CO2 Emissions

Deforestation currently contributes about a fifth of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.

The New York Times.

Paper Factoids: Percentages of Different Kinds of Paper

From the Environmental Paper Network

US Paper and Paperboard Production, 2000 (AF & PA)

Paper Factoids: Harvesting Forests

Most of the world’s paper supply, about 71 percent, is not made from timber harvested at tree farms but from forest-harvested timber, from regions with ecologically valuable, biologically diverse habitat. (Toward a Sustainable Paper Cycle: An Independent Study on the Sustainability of the Pulp and Paper Industry, 1996)

From the Environmental Paper Network.

Paper Factoids: What We Throw Away

Americans throw away enough office paper each year to build a 12-foot high wall stretching from New York to San Francisco—that's 10,000 or so sheets per person!

From reduce.org

Paper Factoids: US vs. the World

The United States, which has less than 5% of the world's population, consumes 30% of the world's paper.

From reduce.org

Paper Factoids: American Paper Consumption

The average American consumes more than 700 pounds of paper a year -- that's the world's highest per capita figure.

From "15 Facts about the Paper Industry, Global Warming and the Environment" at The Daily Green.

Paper Factoids: Copy Paper

Printing and writing paper account for about one-half of U.S. paper production.

From reduce.org

In Honor of Dr. King

"I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the "oughtness" that forever confronts him....

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of nuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality."

Speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, December 11, 1964.

Reduce Your Catalog Waste

Looking for a quick and easy way you can help "save the planet"...? Here's one! www.catalogchoice.org

Each year, 19 billion catalogs are mailed to American consumers--more than 170 per household each year. What’s the impact?

*Number of trees used – 53 million

*Paper used – 3.6 million tons

*Energy used to produce this volume of paper – 38 trillion BTUs, enough to power 1.2 million homes per year

*Waste water discharges from this volume of paper – 53 billion gallons of water, enough to fill 81,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools

*Contribution to global warming – 5.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, equal to the annual emissions of two million cars

www.catalogchoice.org offers a FREE SERVICE that eliminates unwanted catalogs from your mailbox! You choose which catalog you still want to get and which ones to remove. Your information stays private.

Pass it along and help save the world!!!

Paper Factoids: Bills Bills Bills!

Hard copy bills generate almost 700,000 tons of waste and almost two million tons of carbon dioxide.
From The Green Guide.

Solution: Paperless e-billing.

Paper Factoids: Trees into Paper

42% of the industrial wood harvest is used to make paper.

From "15 Facts about the Paper Industry, Global Warming and the Environment" at The Daily Green.

Paper Factoids: Industrial Greenhouse Emissions

The paper industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions among United States manufacturing industries, and contributes 9% of the manufacturing sector's carbon emissions.

From "15 Facts about the Paper Industry, Global Warming and the Environment" at The Daily Green.

Setting Priorities: My family in 2008

Having used last week's post to sum up my family’s achievements in reducing our carbon footprint during 2007, I will continue in the January tradition by forming resolutions for 2008. This is not quite as feel-good a process as tallying up our victories. For one thing, we have made a lot of the easier (for us) changes. Most of our bulbs are CFLs, we are very conscientious about recycling, we even compost; as New Yorkers we already rely heavily on public transportation. Other potential changes— for example reducing air travel or canceling our two newspaper subscriptions—would require actions that go by the highly-charged name of “sacrifice.” Changing to CFLs and starting worm composting felt like improvements—they saved money or were interesting. Cutting our newspapers would require reading them online which I hate.

But without making specific promises that may not be met, here are some areas that I would like our family to emphasize in the coming year:

Target #1: Reduce Paper
Switch the rest of my accounts to online billing
Reduce the deluge of junk mail and catalogues
Reduce paper at work

Target #2: Food
Reduce our consumption of meat
Increase our consumption of fruit, vegetables, and legumes
Make more of an effort to get “local” food
Stop drinking bottled water
Reduce food waste


Starting with target #1, reducing paper:

At a recent Green Drinks, a monthly "meet and greet" for New Yorkers concerned about environmental issues, two people separately admitted that they do not recycle at all. Given New York's mandatory but also fairly user-friendly program, I found that somewhat disheartening--if even environmentalists can't be bothered, it is hard to see how New York is going to increase its already modest participation rates which appear stuck at about 50%.

So to encourage holdouts to begin recycling and everyone to reduce paper, Green Factoids will devote the next series of posts to facts about paper.

Setting Priorities: Which Activities Have The Most Impact?

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists' Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, the following consumer activities are the most harmful to the environment:

Cars and light trucks
Meat and poultry
Fruit, vegetables, and grain
Home heating, hot water, and air-conditioning
Household appliances and lighting
Home construction
Household water and sewage

The Union analyzes the impact of each of these activities on global warming, air and water pollution, and habitat alteration.

Looking at the environmental impact per household on global warming:
32% can be attributed to transportation
35% to household operations
12% to food

Taking Stock: 2007

Green Factoids returns after a 2 month hiatus during which work pressures left little time for other activities. I will brave the risk of falling into the well-worn cliches of the season in order to look at what I have personally accomplished in the past year in my goal to develop a more sustainable lifestyle.

Successes:

I have managed to cut my family’s monthly and daily electricity use roughly in half. After 6 months of tracking our use, I can confidently say that our low kWh readings are not a fluke. I have made the following changes which have helped bring this about (in order of impact):
1. switching every light-bulb I can to CFLs, especially in the most heavily used rooms
2. becoming much more careful about not leaving lights on
3. using our 350 watt halogen fixtures as little as possible
4. replacing our ancient air-conditioner with an EnergyStar model
5. cutting way back on our air-conditioning
6. adjusting the controls so that my computer sleeps after 2 minutes
7. putting my printer, modem, computer and hard drive on a power strip and turning them off most nights

I switched our electricity supplier to one that relies on wind and low-impact hydro-electric.

I switched from traveling by car to traveling by subway on roughly half my commutes.

I started worm composting in my apartment.

I made “sustainability” an express issue on the syllabus of the courses I teach, emphasizing strategies for reducing paper. In addition to distributing all assignments by email, I encouraged my students to hand in their essays printed on the clean side of scrap paper—of whatever color. I set the example by printing my exams and other materials on scrap paper. I also asked that they eliminate title pages and other opportunities for white space and waste. I would estimate that about a third of my students took advantage of my request, saving about 300 sheets of virgin paper. I also printed out the final essay (submitted by email) on scrap paper, saving about another 300 sheets. Not exactly an enormous reduction of impact, but I believe that the gesture raised my students’ awareness of sustainability in a low-key way that did not involve preaching or departing from the “official” curriculum—18th-century literature. I believe that those students who participated have likely changed their paper habits permanently—as have I. I am going to continue to do this for all of my classes, and also suggest it to my colleagues.