NRDC: A Shopper's Guide to Home Tissue Products

According to the NRDC, forests are being destroyed to make toilet paper, facial tissues, paper towels and other disposable paper products. You can help stop this destruction by pressing manufacturers to use recycled content and clean manufacturing processes (click here to send a message to paper giant Kimberly-Clark), and by making smart shopping decisions.
This guide will help you choose products. You can use it three ways:

1. Read it Online (scroll down)
   
2. Print it (pdf)
   
3. Get detailed product info

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Facial Tissue | Toilet Paper | Paper Towels | Napkins | Tips

Facial Tissue If every household in the United States replaced just one box of virgin fiber facial tissues (175 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 163,000 trees. SEE THE FULL LIST
365 (Whole Foods)		100	80	PCF
Fluff Out		100	40	PCF
Green Forest		100	90	PCF
Hankies		100	40	PCF
Marcal		100	40	PCF
Natural Value		100	80	PCF
Seventh Generation		100	80	PCF
Small Steps		100	30	PCF
Kleenex		0	0	ECF
Puffs		0	0	ECF

Toilet Paper If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 423,900 trees. SEE THE FULL LIST
365 (Whole Foods)		100	>80	PCF
Ambiance		100	80	PCF
April Soft		100	80	PCF
Best Value		100	<40	PCF
CVS Earth Essentials		100	60	PCF
Earth First		100	<80	PCF
Earth Friendly		100	80	PCF
Fiesta		100	80	PCF
Green Forest		100	90	PCF
Marcal		100	40	PCF
Natural Value		100	80	PCF
Natures Choice		100	<40	PCF
Pert		100	<40	PCF
Seventh Generation		100	80	PCF
Small Steps		100	30	PCF
Sofpac		100	40	PCF
Trader Joe's		100	80	PCF
Charmin		0	0	ECF
Cottonelle		0	0	ECF

Paper Towels If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels (70 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 544,000 trees. SEE THE FULL LIST
365 (Whole Foods)		100	>80	PCF
Atlantic		100	80	PCF
Best Value		100	<40	PCF
CVS Earth Essentials		100	60	PCF
Earth First		100	<80	PCF
Earth Friendly		100	80	PCF
Fiesta		100	80	PCF
Green Forest		100	90	PCF
Marcal		100	>60	PCF
Natural Value		100	80	PCF
Natures Choice		100	<40	PCF
Pert		100	<40	PCF
Seventh Generation		100	80	PCF
Small Steps		100	70	PCF
Trader Joe's		100	80	PCF
Bounty		0	0	ECF
Viva		0	0	ECF

Napkins If every household in the United States replaced just one package of virgin fiber napkins (250 count) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 1 million trees. SEE THE FULL LIST
365 (Whole Foods)		100	>80	PCF
Bella		100	40	PCF
CVS Earth Essentials		100	60	PCF
Earth First		100	<80	PCF
Green Forest		100	90	PCF
Marcal		100	>60	PCF
Natural Value		100	80	PCF
Seventh Generation		100	80	PCF
Small Steps		100	70	PCF
Bounty		0	0	ECF
Kleenex		0	0	ECF

Tips: Three Things You Can Do To Help Save Forests

1. Buy paper products with recycled content -- especially post-consumer fibers. Look for products that have a high recycled content, including high post-consumer content. Post-consumer fibers are recovered from paper that was previously used by consumers and would otherwise have been dumped into a landfill or an incinerator. 2. Buy paper products made with clean, safe processes. Paper products are bleached to make them whiter and brighter, but chlorine used in many bleaching processes contributes to the formation of harmful chemicals that wind up in our air and water and are highly toxic to people and fish. Look for products labeled totally chlorine-free (TCF) or processed chlorine-free (PCF). In some cases, elemental chlorine-free (ECF) may be acceptable. 3. Tell tissue manufacturers to stop using virgin wood for throwaway products. If a brand you buy for your home doesn't have any recycled content, contact the manufacturer (click here to send a message to paper giant Kimberly-Clark). Tell the company to use more recycled fibers, to avoid sourcing from ecologically valuable forests such as those in the Cumberland Plateau and Canadian boreal, and to ensure any virgin fibers used are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Saving forests also helps reduce global warming pollution.

Note: NRDC provides this assessment of the environmental characteristics of tissue paper products to help consumers make informed choices. NRDC does not endorse any products.

Thousands of Floating Dead Fish in Florida Bay May Have Been Killed by Heat Stroke

SHOCK:  Thousands of dead fish popped up in Florida Bay, possibly the victims of what is being described as a marine version of a heat stroke. The number of dead fish were unusually large for the waters of Everglades National Park, which included floating redfish, snook and other species covering nearly 20 acres in between Buoy Key and the coast, according to Dave Hallac, the park's chief of biological resources.

According to the Miami Herald, some fish kills happen almost every year in Florida Bay. Because much of the bay is shallow, with vast flats only a few feet deep, water conditions can change rapidly with the weather. Cold snaps can prove unbearable and lead to death for temperature-sensitive fish such as snook, while extended hot, dry spells can raise salinity and kill sea grass, with a sometimes fatal effect on other life as the decaying plants suck oxygen from the water. Hallac said that while low oxygen is suspected, levels must have dropped quickly. He fished the area over the weekend and caught sea trout.

There was no visible signs of the green algae blooms that have plagued the waters of Florida Bay and the Keys in past summers. Hallac said the park collected water samples and is working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to pinpoint the problem.

India to Build Special School to Improve Behavior of Delinquent Monkeys

Monkeys have become a major nuisance throughout India (BBC News)

I don't know whether to laugh or keep a straight face. Wildlife officials in India plan to build a special school to improve the behavior of delinquent monkeys. Yes, you heard it -- a school for delinquent monkeys. Officials have said that their aim is to target monkeys that pose a serious threat to people in the state of Punjab, where they have become a growing menace, as they move into towns and cities in search of food.

According to the BBC, the state government has asked India's Central Zoo Authority for funds to build the country's first monkey rescue and rehabilitation centre. Punjab reportedly has more than 65,000 wild monkeys, where it is not uncommon for them to attack humans as they search for food.

The problem of rogue monkeys is particularly severe in towns close to India's north-western border with Pakistan. Officials accuse them of a variety of bad behaviour from terrorising children, snatching food from people and destroying property. Macaque monkeys routinely destroy TV antennae, tear down clothes-lines and damage parked scooters and motorcycles.

"Besides people landing in hospitals after encounters with monkeys, the animals also often get hurt when house owners try to chase them away or keep them out by using live electric wires and other means," chief wildlife warden RK Luna told the BBC. The proposed new monkey school will take in the "worst offenders" and put them through a crash course in good manners.

"We have proposed a composite facility where scientific methods will be employed to change and alter the social habits of the monkeys," Mr Luna said. Wildlife officials hope to reduce aggression and train the monkeys to be more like the wild animals they originally were.

It is hoped that the school will eventually become a temporary home for up to 100 rogue monkeys. It will begin with 15-20 animals complete with a quarantine area and a veterinary hospital. The monkey rehabilitation centre is planned as an extension to a mini zoo near the city of Patiala, in a thickly forested area that was once the royal hunting grounds of the princely state of Patiala. Source:  BBC News

Who would have ever thought a school for delinquent monkeys would ever be opened. Now that's a real doozy of a story.

Nike Inc. To Stop Using Leather From Cattle Raised in Brazil's Amazon Rainforest

Cattle grazing in the Amazon rainforest - © Mikadx/Istockphoto

Nike Inc. has announced that it will stop using leather from cattle raised in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, due to its commitment to curbing the region's deforestation. Nike said its Brazilian leather suppliers have until July 1, 2010 to "create an ongoing, traceable and transparent system to provide credible assurances that leather used for Nike products is from cattle raised outside of the Amazon Biome." The statement also said, "We understand how important rainforests are to the health of the planet and the implications deforestation has on climate change and global warming."

Kudos to Greenpeace, which said Nike's decision was prompted by a recent report from the environmental group showing that leather and meat produced from cattle in the Amazon are major contributors to the region's deforestation. According to the Greenpeace report, "Slaughtering the Amazon," which was released in June, "every eight seconds, an acre of Amazon rainforest is destroyed for Brazilian cattle ranching, which is the biggest single driver of deforestation in the world." The three-year investigation "tracked beef, leather and other cattle products from ranches involved in deforestation at the heart of the Amazon rainforest."

STUDY: Fish are Shrinking in Response to Global Warming

DC Traveler, Maine Avenue Fish Market

SHOCK: A study published by the Cemagref Public Agricultural and Environmental Research Institute in Lyon, France, has said that fish have lost half their average body mass and smaller species are making up a larger proportion of European fish stocks as a result of global warming. Martin Daufresne, study author, said "size is a fundamental characteristic that is linked to a number of biological functions, such as fecundity - the capacity to reproduce." Smaller fish usually produce fewer eggs and they also provide less sustenance for predator, including us -- humans, which could have a significant effect on the food chain and the ecosystem

Earlier research has already established that fish have shifted their geographic ranges and their migratory and breeding patters in response to rising water temperatures. It has also been established that warmer regions tend to be inhabited by smaller fish.

Daufresne and his colleagues examined long-term surveys of fish populations in rivers, streams and the Baltic and North Seas and also performed experiments on bacteria and plankton. They found the individual species lost an average of 50 percent of their body mass over the past 20 to 30 years while the average size of the overall fishing stock had shrunk by 60 percent.

This was a result of a decrease in the average size-at-age and an increase in the proportion of juveniles and small-sized species, Daufresne said. "It was an effect that we observed in a number of organisms and in a number of very different environments - on fish, on plankton, on bacteria, in fresh water, in salt water and we observed a global shrinking of size for all the organisms in all the environments," Daufresne said in a telephone interview. AFP

The results of this study are extremely startling and we cannot continue to take global warming and its effects lightly.

Ganges River Dolphins in Dire Straits, Hotspots Must be Protected

According to a recent study, dolphin hotspots must be protected if the Ganges River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica) is to survive in the Brahmaputra river system. Estimates have put the total population of the Ganges River Dolphins at around 2,000. Out of these, between 240 to 300 inhabit the Brahmaputra River system in India, according to a recent survey by an IUCN Sir Peter Scott Fund project.

“Our research shows accidental killing through fisheries by-catch, followed by poaching for oil, are the major threats to the dolphins of the Brahmaputra river system,” says Project Leader Abdul Wakid. “Their habitat is also being degraded by human activities. Dam building and a proposed seismsic survey in the Brahmaputra river are potential threats.”

The project was prompted by the need for some robust dolphin population data after Oil India Ltd. proposed to start prospecting for oil along the bed of the Brahmaputra River using air guns and explosives. The research identified eight river sections as potential protected areas and community-based dolphin conservation as the best strategy to save the dolphins.

“The Brahmaputra River is very important habitat for these endangered dolphins,” says Gill Braulik, of IUCN’s Cetacean Specialist Group. “To protect them it is vital that we involve local river communities. In some places, like in the Kukurmara area of Kulsi River, for example, the dolphins are a tourist attraction due to protection by local communities. But in other areas, dolphins are accidentally killed in fishing nets or are sometimes deliberately caught and killed for their oil.”

The project carried out 32 awareness campaigns along the Brahmaputra valley, focusing on fishing communities in areas surrounding dolphin hotspots.

The Ganges River Dolphin is found mainly in the Ganges and Brahmaputra river systems in India and Bangladesh. This survey concentrated on the 1,044 km stretch of dolphin-inhabited Brahmaputra River system, primarily in Assam of North East India. In a 2005 survey in the same river stretch by the same investigating group a best estimate of 250 dolphins was recorded.

Full report: CLICK HERE

Obama Administration to Halt Uranium Mining on One Million Acres Near Grand Canyon

CARVING OUT THE CANYON FLICKR/L.BRUMM PHOTOGRAPHY

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will announce that the department will temporarily bar the filing of new uranium mining claims on about one million acres near the Grand Canyon. The land is being "segregated" for two years so that the department can study whether it should be permanently withdrawn from mining activities, an official said.

The announcement comes ahead of Tuesday's congressional hearing on a bill to set aside more than 1 million acres of federal lands north and south of the canyon. The bill's sponsor, Democratic U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, and environmental groups had been looking to Salazar for temporary protections at the Grand Canyon while the legislation is pending.

The Interior Department under President George W. Bush was unresponsive to efforts to ban new uranium mining claims. The House Natural Resources Committee invoked a little-used rule to stop any new claims for up to three years, but Interior officials refused to recognize the action and continued to authorize additional mining claims. A coalition of environmental groups sued, and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management later rescinded Congress' right to withdraw lands from mining and other activities in emergencies. Since then, environmentalists and Grijalva have been hanging their hopes on Salazar for temporary protections.

Any companion bill to Grijalva's in the Senate is unlikely to come from Arizona's two U.S. senators. Republicans John McCain and Jon Kyl told Grijalva in a letter last month that adequate protections already exist.Conservationists contend mining leaves the Grand Canyon vulnerable to environmental damage and that no new operations should be proposed when the old mining sites haven't been cleaned up.

There are as many as 10,000 existing mining claims on BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands near the Grand Canyon for all types of hard-rock exploration. Some 1,100 uranium mining claims are within five miles of the Grand Canyon National Park. Source: The Huffington Post

I applaud the Obama Administration for this latest move, but the ultimate goal should be a permanent withdrawal.

John Cota, Helmsman of Cosco Busan Cargo Ship, Sentenced to 10 Months for Oil Spill in San Francisco Bay

John Cota, the helmsman for Cosco Busan cargo ship, was sentenced to 10 months in prison for an oil spill in the San Francisco Bay. Cota pleaded guilty in March to two misdemeanor environmental crimes of illegally discharging oil in the bay and killing thousands of birds. He apologized to the court and to the "people of the Bay Area for the damage I have caused."

The Nov. 7, 2007, oil spill poured more than 53,000 gallons of oil into the water after the 901-foot Cosco Busan struck a tower of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in heavy fog. The spill killed 2,000 birds, fouled dozens of miles of coastline and cost commercial fishermen millions of dollars in lost revenue. His attorney said that a poorly trained Chinese crew, language barriers and others factors beyond Cota's control contributed to the accident.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said Cota was hired to guide the ship out of the San Francisco Bay because of his extensive knowledge of the region and should have known where the bridge was located. The judge also agreed with prosecutors that Cota made several disastrously poor decisions while piloting the ship.

Authorities have said he shouldn't have departed in extreme fog when pilots of six other large vessels decided not to, failed to have a discussion with the ship's master to review the transit plan and failed to notify the Coast Guard that the ship's radar was unreliable.

Turkey Joins Italy, France and New York City, in Banning Smoking in Bars, Cafes, Pubs and Restaurants

SMOKE SIGNALS: Tea and coffeehouse owners smoke water pipes in the
Izmir, western Turkey, as they gather in the city center
to protest against the smoking ban . Reuters

Tobacco-loving Turkey has become the latest country, after France and Italy, to go smoke-free. A new law takes effect today that bans smoking in bars, cafes, pubs and restaurants across Turkey, which happens to be the world's fourth largest tobacco producer, where 22 million people reportedly smoke on a regular basis. The ban has the approval of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who launched an anti-smoking campaign in 2007, saying that "it was important as the fight against terrorism." Turkey's decision to go anti-smoking is to comply with requirements set forth by the European Union, which it is seeking to join. The public is overwhelmingly behind the move as well. The latest move is an extension of a ban issued in May 2008 on smoking in offices, public transport, shopping malls, schools, hospitals and other public places.

But the law also dovetails with the Islamic-rooted government's deep distaste for tobacco and alcohol. None of Erdogan's ministers smoke, and previous governments had been trying to introduce similar laws for years, only to be stymied by strong pressure from tobacco lobbyists. Turks spend almost $25 billion a year on cigarettes.

The government's zeal to get people to stub out their cigarettes is not without historical precedent. Shortly after tobacco was introduced to the Ottoman Empire in 1601, Sultan Murat IV banned the use and sale of tobacco — on penalty of death — after clerical decree. That ban, however, was repealed a little over a decade later, and smoking quickly became a status symbol, "one of four cushions of pleasure," according to one historian.

Despite the prevalence of smoking in Turkish society, recent polls show overwhelming public support for the ban — around 90%. "There's been an amazingly quick cultural shift," says Sylviane Ratte, a tobacco control expert who monitors Turkey for the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (also known as The Union). "People see it as a health issue. The main concern is that the ban be equally enforced." To that end, the Health Ministry has trained a 5,000-person task force to patrol establishments and dole out fines to anyone caught lighting up. For now, smokers who defy the ban will face a paltry $45 fine, but that's due to go up in 2010. The law is harsher on establishments — they face an initial $500 fine, which increases exponentially with every repeat offense. Source: Time Magazine

Turkey's latest move makes it the second developing country, after Uruguay, to institute a comprehensive ban. According to the World Health Organization, developing nations will account for 80% of the world's tobacco-related deaths over the next decade. That's staggering and mind-boggling at the same time.

Giant Blob Of Floating Off Arctic Coast Identified as Marine Algae (VIDEO)

Mystery solved. The black goo that was spotted floating between Barrow and Wainwright last week, has been tested and identified by the Department of Environmental Conservation in Fairbanks as marine algae. The goo fast became an Alaska mystery. The new findings still leave lingering questions such as why is there so much of it in a region where people have said they have never seen anything quite like it?

The Coast Guard labeled the substance biological, but knew little else. A borough official said that the stuff had hairy strands in it and was tangled with jellyfish. said a borough official.

Obama Administration Approves First Logging Contract In Alaska's Tongass National Forest, Many Enviromentalists Upset

President Barack Obama will, no doubt, be criticized by environmentalists for his latest decision to allow logging in the Tongass National Forest. His administration has approved the sale of timber in the nation's largest temperate rain forest, which is home to both endangered species and native Alaskan tribes. Alaskan Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich both supported the administration's decision to allow the timber sale, saying that it would provide jobs to the area's underemployed loggers. Personally, I think logging in national forests is destructive.

According to The Wilderness Society:

American taxpayers have not only watched as the Tongass has been picked apart by road building and logging, they've paid for the privilege. The tab extends beyond $750 million over 20 years. In a single year alone, the Forest Service spent $36 million on the Tongass timber program and got back in revenues only $1 million. Subsidies for logging roads account for nearly half of timber program costs annually.

I think the rain forest should be left as it is. What are your thoughts on the President's decision?