Paper gluttons killing forests

Letter by Gary Saunders, retired forester
The Chronicle Herald
November 6, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Re: “Forestry out of control,” Bob Bancroft’s Oct. 28 letter against industrial clearcutting. He ignores or forgets the real reason for this practice: our insatiable appetite for cheap paper. In this, we Canadians outdo every other nation on Earth but one: America. Even a decade ago, we averaged a quarter tonne a year per person. Now, despite the internet’s urge to “go paperless,” it’s likely even higher thanks to the overpackaging of internet-shopped goods. …Really, anyone who uses toilet paper is complicit in clearcutting somewhere. So let’s quit this holier-than-thou, juvenile name-calling, take our share of the blame and get on with curbing our throwaway lifestyle. Europeans, no longer blessed with ample woodlands, can teach us how.

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