Toilet Paper

Rodger has an excellent piece on the horrible damage of toilet paper on the environment. Read the whole thing, but here's one statistic that should alarm all of us:

The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that toilet paper accounts for about 15% of deforestation worldwide.  

Maybe along with fighting to save the Amazon and restricting the growth of palm oil plantations in Malaysia, we should reform our own bathroom behavior. Use less, use recycled.

Remember, environmental destruction often happens because of consumer demand. Don't drive an SUV and complain about climate change. Don't fight to save forests and then go through a roll of toilet paper every two days. Every time you wipe yourself, you are destroying the world's ability to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, reducing species habitat, and making the world a worse place. We can call using toilet paper a necessity, and I'd certainly agree with that, but we can certainly reduce and recycle. Big time.