Where A Good Environmentalist Would Put Her Sunday Paper

We hear the latest campaign to save American forests and their absorption of CO2 focuses on toilet paper. The British Guardian offers this quote from a scientist in one of America's leading environmental organizations, NRDC: This is a product that we use for less than three seconds and the ecological consequences of manufacturing it from trees is enormous," said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age. Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution."

Finally, the anal nature of environmental puritanism has come out in the open. Before we switch to recycled toilet paper, as the Guardian says 40% of Europe does, we should like to know what chemicals are used to reprocess paper, where those chemicals go, how much energy is used, and where the chemical inks that are removed go.

Also we might note that even recycled toilet paper cannot be recycled again. Now, if all the environmentalists who enjoy reading the Guardian or The New York Times would simply recycle those forest destroying pages in their bathrooms, we might believe they are serious about environmental toiletry. Their practice would warm the heart and not the planet.