Consumer Rumors: Time to stop buying tissues

From Greenpeace's website, a new reason why we should all be wiping our noses with reusable hankies and wiping our bums with recycled toilet paper:

Shocking new photos released today reveal the existence of a massive stockpile of old-growth logs that are destined to become disposable products like Kleenex tissue and Cottonelle toilet paper for tissue giant Kimberly-Clark Corporation (K-C). The logs originate from the Ogoki Forest, the single most ecologically valuable area left in Ontario’s southern Boreal Forest and the site of growing controversy.

The stockpile is evidence of Kimberly-Clark’s egregious mismanagement of the forests despite company claims that “much of [the] fiber from the Canadian Boreal forest comes to K-C in the form of wood pulp produced from sawdust and chips – or leftovers – of the lumber production process.”

As these new photos and recent government correspondence reveal, Kimberly-Clark is currently purchasing huge quantities of pulp made primarily from whole, old-growth trees from intact areas of Canada’s Boreal Forest.

And, some astonishing facts from a recent report that Greenpeace put out on Kleenex, "Cut and Run":

• Kimberly-Clark uses hundreds of thousands of tonnes of tree fibre from the Kenogami Forest every year to produce disposable tissue products, including Kleenex.
• Kimberly-Clark directly managed and logged the Kenogami Forest for 71 years, from 1937 to 2004.
• Since Kimberly-Clark started logging there, 71 per cent of the Kenogami Forest has been fragmented. Woodland caribou have been driven out of 67 per cent of the forest, and wolverines have completely disappeared from its boundaries.
• Between 2001 and 2006 alone, 220,500 hectares (544,635 acres) of intact forest was fragmented—an area more than twice the size of Dallas.
• Caribou are predicted to die-off in 95 per cent of the forest within the next 20 years, due to the logging that has already been done. Eighty per cent of the monitored species in the forest are predicted to decline substantially within the next 100 years.
• Many of the remaining intact and old-growth forest areas in Kenogami, including critical threatened species habitat, are slated to be cut under the 2005–2010 and draft 2010–2011 plans.

(Eds note: Congrats to Rachel C. for winning the contest for naming this feature!)

Massive Oil Expansion Slated For Amazon: Could the Amazonian Chernobyl Get Even Worse?

Earlier this week, I was stunned to learn about the "Amazonian Chernobyl." Now, it seems like Ecuador might be just the tip of the iceberg.

According to the Guardian, huge amounts of land in the Amazon are about to be opened up for gas exploration, including in some biodiversity hotspots. The land earmarked by oil companies for exploration spans the size of Texas. Texas!!!

Matt Finer of Save America's Forests, a US-based environmental group, said, "When you look at where the oil and gas blocks are, they overlap perfectly on top of the peak biodiversity spots, almost as if by design, and this is in one of the most, if not the most, biodiverse place on Earth."

The good (well, not good, but not as bad) news is that right now most of that land is in the exploration phase- which is problematic because it means companies are going to be cutting into the forest for their tests, but its not as devastating as full on oil drilling. Once the exploration turns to development is when there are going to be real problems. Not only ecologically, but also in terms of the indigenous people who live on these lands. "The way that oil development is being pursued in the western Amazon is a gross violation of the rights of the indigenous peoples of the region," explains Brain Keane of Land is Life.

Read more from The Guardian if you are interested to learn more.

Why haven't I heard about the Amazonian Chernobyl until now?

File this under things we should have heard about a long time ago. Apparently, U.S. oil giant Chevron has dumped over 17 million tons of oil waste in Ecuador, in an area with multiple indigenous tribes and thousands of rare species of plants and animals. The contamination is so bad that it is being referred to as the "Amazonian Chernobyl."

The toxic pollution has devastated the wildlife, poisoned the land and water, and sickened the people of Ecuador. 30,000 Ecuadorians have sued Chevron, and in typical form, they are denying responsibility.

Read all about it in the London Daily Telegraph and on Amazon Watch's excellent website, Chevron Toxico.

Have other people heard of this before now? Anyone else feel compelled to boycott Chevron?

This Just In: Climate Change Will F*** Things Up

Global warming could make extreme rains even stronger and more frequent, causing bigger floods, greater crop damage, and wider spread of diseases than previous thought, according to a new study by researchers in the U.K. In fact, extreme rainstorms are expected to rise 10 percent by 2050. These changes are already being seen, as evidenced by recent increases in massive downpours and flooding.

In related news:

• Samoan communities, faced with rising tides, are struggling to survive
  
• Polar bears are trapped on land because the sea ice retreated earlier this year
• Global warming and oil and gas development is threatening the Pacific Walrus, and if the Bush Administration doesn't act to protect them, pretty soon putting two sticks/cheetos/etc in your mouth will just be sad, no longer funny
• More than 4000 species of fish and other sea critters face extinction as coral reefs become ever more threatened

Man, what a bummer. I'll try to find some happier news to post before the workday is out, so I'm not such a Debbie Downer.