Paper and The Boreal Forests

We experienced Earth Hour together - all of us throughout the world reaching out to the hands reaching out to us and we stood together embracing our mother, Earth. A moment of solidarity, a meditation. We took action. We made a statement. It wasn’t so hard, was it? It was fun! We saw immediately, as Earth Family, the difference we can make.

This is worth a watch and a passing on to the young and old, alike, that you know.

http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=1500

Look and See

This morning, at waterside, a sparrow flew

to a water rock and landed, by error, on the back

of an eider duck; lightly it fluttered off, amused.

The duck, too, was not provoked, but, you might say, was

laughing.

This afternoon a gull sailing over

our house was casually scratching

its stomach of white feathers with one

pink foot as it flew.

Oh Lord, how shining and festive is your gift to us, if we

only look, and see.
Mary Oliver
(Why I Wake Early)
www.panhala.net/Archive/Look_and_See.html

This Week’s Suggestion:

This week, as the new season beckons us outside, let’s just stop a moment, look around us and really see what waits to be seen by us. The birds are returning to those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. Trees are budding. Shots – the promise of blooms – are pushing up through the moist soil. The sun is rising higher as the shadows grow smaller over our homes. Let’s simply whisper, “Thank you” to all we meet.

Getting To Know Our Neighbours:

The Boreal Forests (known as the Taiga in Russia) circle the southern edge of the Artic Circle and makes up 1/3 of our Earth’s forested area. Found mostly in Canada, Russia and Scandinavia, the boreal forests cover an estimated 12 million square kilometers with a wide variety of water systems such as bogs, lakes, rivers, fens, marshes and wetlands.
Conifers, spruce and fir are the main species of tree with some deciduous trees lining the waterways.

These forests are large ecosystems home to First Nations peoples and support over 200 species of birds, many animals like caribou, moose, timber wolves, wood bison, black bear, wolverines and fishers, hares and beaver (to name but a few), fish and plants.

Boreal forests are important to Earth’s survival. They lock up huge amounts of carbon dioxide and release vast amounts of oxygen into the atmosphere, thus reducing greenhouse gases and the effects of global warming. During spring and summer, the growing season of the boreal forests, the Earth’s carbon dioxide levels drop and the amount of oxygen rises considerably.

Large forestry companies, like Kimberly-Clark, lease vast areas of Canada’s boreal forest for paper and pulp production. Clearcutting leads to the lose of habitat for innumerable plants, animals and birds, causes soil erosion and destroys the forest’s ability to protect Earth from the overheating from the sun’s rays.

“Human activities, such as tree foresting, mining, manufacturing, resource development and recreational use are causing stress and changes to this land (the boreal ecosystems). Their cumulative and long-term effects will cause far-reaching and potentially disastrous changes to the forest.” Natural Resources Canada (http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/learningresources/theme_modules/borealforest/index.html#what)
For more information on boreal forests, go to: http://www.borealforest.org/

A Fact Or Two:

Paper is used in writing, reading and printing materials, packaging, cleaning, and building products. Most paper products we use today come from harvesting trees. Paper, be it newspaper, magazines, cardboard, paper bags, coffee cups and computer printouts make up for more than 1/3 of the garbage put into landfill sites each week. The paper in landfill sites eventually decomposes, releasing significant methane into the environment.

To make 1 tonne of paper, approximately 19 full grown trees are needed, as well as large amounts of fossil fuels, clean water, electricity, and chemicals such as chlorine gas, chlorine dioxide, aluminum sulphate, tars and dyes.

1 tree can be saved by recycling 54 kilograms of newspaper.

If a family of four were to recycle all their newspapers, in 1 year that family would save approximately half a 12’’ diameter tree. As of today, there are 33,599,902 people in Canada. (Statistics Canada, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/edu/clock-horloge/edu06f_0001-eng.htm) If my calculations are not too far off, that would mean Canadians in 1 year could save about 4,199,987.7 trees. That’s a lot of trees!

Post-consumer recycled paper can be made into facial tissues, toilet paper and paper towels, flooring, countertops, computer paper, books, and many other products.

The Short Story of Recycling Paper
1. You use paper products and save them for recycling.
2. The paper is collected and sorted.
3. Then it is delivered to a paper mill...
4. where it is prepared for de-inking.
5. In de-inking, paddles beat the paper to pulp and remove old ink, glue and staples.
6. A screen shakes the pulp into a flat wet mass which is moved to...
7. heated drying rollers which squeeze water out of the pulp and dry it into new paper and cardboard.
8. The new paper and cardboard are then delivered to printers and box makers...

9. who use it to make new products.
(http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/community/classroom/c7-paper-e.html)

What Can We Do?

In short, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Recycle all used paper products.

Subscribe to newspapers and magazines on line.

Rather than buying magazines, consider going to the library to read them.

Create a magazine swap amongst friends and neighbours.

Print on both sides of computer paper.

Make simple notepads from one-sided printed flyers, mailed promotional letters, etc., by stapling them together and trimming them to size.

Reuse old envelopes by sticking new labels over the old labels.

Buy recycled post-consumer paper products like facial tissues, toilet paper, cards, envelopes, and napkins. Look for products labeled totally chlorine-free (TCF) or processed chlorine-free (PCF).

Avoid products by Scott, Cottonelle, Kleenex and Viva, all products made by Kimberly-Clark , until such time as these products are made from recycled paper and are TCF or PCF.

Go to the sidebar's Petitions, click onto Kimberly-Clark, re: post-recycled products and send a message to Kimberly-Clark that we want post-consumer recycled paper products.

Media:

Short Videos: National Geographic Video: What’s Your Footprint?

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/player.html?title=05188_00

Slideshow: Girl Who Silenced the UN for 5 Minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sb6RmRMbBY&feature=related

Websites: Daily Good; 10 Ways To Reduce Household Waste
http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=3616

E-Magazines/Newsletters: Yes Newsletter http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=3640a

Here’s an idea – if you would jot down how you spent Earth Hour (and there can be some spice…) and send these moments by email to moczero@sympatico.ca , we could have a sharing, a celebration next week on the Whole Earth Care Blog. How about it?

If there are new readers to Whole Earth Care and you want to be on the Reminders Email List, send your email address to moczero@sympatico.ca for a short reminder each time there is a new posting. You will be Bcc’d so as to avoid all those nasty cyberspace thingys.

As always, I wait, now anxiously, on articles for the Guest Writers and stories for The Narratives. Nothing fancy, just simple, short pieces that will help to build our Whole Earth Care Virtual Community. Go ahead, be adventurous.

April is Earth Month and Wednesday, April 22nd is Earth Day.

Finally, a very sad note. Last week, Sandra, one of our Virtual Community Members, who wrote, Death by a 1000 Cuts, for The Narratives, Saturday, February 21, 2009, has died. Please take a moment to hold Sandra in your hearts and to send blessings to her family.

Thank you.

Earth Family First,

maureen

(Photos by Google Images)