Will the new Climate Bill help protecting forests or become a source of income for timber companies?

The Climate bill passed in the House last Friday. It might not be only a new era in fighting climate change, but also the first time when it is worthwhile to keep trees alive instead of cutting them down.

The Huffington Post reported last Friday that trees will be part of the credits scheme that is presented in the bill, and this time it means not only reforestation projects, but also protection of existing forestlands.

The article explains the mechanism:

"Say an acre of forestland sucks up two additional metric tons of carbon after a landowner plants more trees on his land or promises to rotate the way he cuts them down so more are standing at once. If the pollution market created by the legislation is currently trading at $20 a ton, then the landowner could stand to make $40 per acre if he qualifies for the program"

The legislation, according to the article. would also extend to international forests, promising to pay some countries that agree to slow their harvesting of trees abroad. We mentioned this idea in the past (see links below) and we're definitely in favor of giving economic incentives to preserve the forests and to make it worthwhile to keep them alive, avoid logging and prevent further deforestation.

This idea was discussed in the U.N.’s Bali meeting in December last year, and though it is not approved yet, there's a good chance it will be part of the post-Kyoto protocol that will be discussed in Copenhagen in December. It also enjoys the support of many international parties, such as Prince Charles, Norway, Al Gore and Wangari Maathai.

So we should be happy as forest protection finally becomes part of the carbon market, right? well, we are but it seems that the way it was integrated in the Bill is a little bit problematic..

Well, there are of course concerns about measurement, monitoring and making sure carbon capturing is actually taking place (especially outside the U.S.), but in all these concerns are no different really from the concerns you have with every other component in the "trade" part of the cap and trade scheme under the Bill. The more significant issue here might be who is eligible to take part in it in the first place.

The article on the Huffington Post mentions that owners of large swaths of forestland, such as timber companies and large farms can benefit from it. Frank O'Donnell of the advocacy group Clean Air Watch is quoted saying "In effect, the public is going to pay polluters to plant trees. Does that really lead to a major improvement in global warming? I don't know and I'm not sure anybody knows."

The fact that the Agriculture Department, which includes the U.S. Forest Service, will oversee the domestic program and develop regulations for verifying whether a forest owner's particular tract of land is actually capturing carbon, brings up questions like will they make tree farms eligible as well and how much will they will take sustainability into account?

If eventually we'll have timber companies being paid for having single-species tree farms that have replaced highly diverse forests (you can see that in the Southeast U.S. for example), then we're very far from what the idea of forests protection was meant to achieve in the first place.

So how it can be prevented? here is just one idea - how about limiting forest protection to highly-diverse forests and/or forests that have FSC certification. I believe that these kind of restrictions can provide a better chance that this measure of forests protection will truly help fighting climate change and not just become another way for land owners to make money without making any significant impact on the environment.

What do you think? I'll be happy to hear your thoughts about it so feel free to add your comments.

More related posts:

How investors can save the forests? check out the Ethical Corporation Magazine

Al Gore and Wangari Maathai calls the U.N. General Assemby to support protection of forests

Merrill Lynch is investing in forest protection

How to deal with the growing deforestation in the Amazon rain forest?

Prince Charles wants to team up with Norway to save forests

Preserving forests to fight global warming

Yours, Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing

Looking for a green printer in Florida?

We always love to learn about green printers and present them on our blog.

This time we have a video with Augustus Casamayor, chairman/CEO of AC Graphics in Hialeah, Florida. It's especially recommended for those who are concerned with the cost of green printing!



As mentioned on the video, AC Graphics is the first triple-certified green printer in the State of Florida, which means the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), the PEFC Council (Programme for the Endorsment of Forest Certification) and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) have verified our company’s products and practices as being environmentally sound.

On Tuesday you'll have a chance to learn more about the FSC certification on our "Green Printing Tips" series.

You can find more information on AC Graphics on their website - http://www.acgraphics.com

Yours,
Raz@Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing

Men-only book club?

Can men actually sit together, sip Cabernet and discuss books?

Apparently yes, according to an interesting article of Don Aucoin on the Boston Globe ("Where the guys Are").

So what brings guys to sit together and discuss books? one of the interviewees in the article explains that book groups offer the best of both worlds "I get a night out," he says. "I get to hang out with a few of my buddies whom I normally wouldn't see. I get to have a few laughs and talk about everything. Plus it forces me to read a book a month, which is something I don't know if I'd do."

Well. who knows, maybe we'll see soon a male version of the Jane Austen Book Club. How about the 69-page book club? (following the rule of one book club presented in the article that "there has to be something pretty sick going on on page 69 for us to read the book, either a sexual encounter or some crazy situation.")

Yours,
Raz@Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing

My Summer Reading with Sue Schrader of the bookstore Sources of Hope

The second guest today on our series My Summer Reading is Sue Schrader of Sources of Hope in Dallas, Texas. This gifts and books store is part of the Cathedral of Hope and also participates in our bookstores program, where customers at the store can plant a tree for every book they buy there and receive our sticker at the counter!

Hi Sue, what are you reading now?
Artifacts by Mary Anna Evans

Any recommendation on a good summer reading?
Light fiction – no specific titles

What you are planning to read this summer?
Have several books at home, but can’t remember titles.

What is your favorite place to read in the summer?
Same as in the winter—at meals, waiting in line or on appointments, on the couch.

Thanks Sue!

More information on Sources of Hope can be found at http://www.sourcesofhope.com/

So far on My Summer Reading series:

Christian Valentiner of the Norwegian publisher Flux

Avrim Topel, co-author of 'My Green Beginnings'

Tania Hershman, author of 'The White Road and Other Stories'

Elisabeth Baines, author of the upcoming book 'Too Many Magpie'

Erica Caldwell of the bookstore Present Tense

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green publishing

My Summer Reading with Erica Caldwell of the bookstore Present Tense

This week it's bookstores time on our series My Summer Reading with two recommendations from bookstores that participate in our bookstores program, where customers at the store can plant a tree for every book they buy there and receive our sticker at the counter!

Our first guest is Erica Caldwell of Present Tense in Batavia, NY.

Located in Batavia, NY, halfway between the cities of Buffalo and Rochester, Present Tense is a locally-owned independent bookstore that serves as a center for reading, writing, and the arts in Western New York. As you can see from the picture below Present Tense is also celebrating the summer with a great program of visiting authors.

Hi Erica, what are you reading now?
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

Any recommendation on a good summer reading?
The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan

What you are planning to read this summer?
The Crying Tree by Naseem Rakha and then hopefully a few more that are in my towering stack of unread books!

What is your favorite place to read in the summer?
On the deck

Thanks Erica!

More information on Present Tense can be found at http://www.presenttensebooks.com/

So far on My Summer Reading series:

Christian Valentiner of the Norwegian publisher Flux

Avrim Topel, co-author of 'My Green Beginnings'

Tania Hershman, author of 'The White Road and Other Stories'

Elisabeth Baines, author of the upcoming book 'Too Many Magpie'

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green publishing

International Paper believes that paper is greener than pixels. Is this really the case here?

International Paper published yesterday a press release on a new brochure in their Down to Earth environmental series, entitled "Pixels vs. Paper: Are pixels greener than paper?"

The goal of the 6-page brochure is explained as follows: "More and more people are communicating with electronic media. But are electronic devices the most effective environmental choice for getting information? Get the facts before you decide"

Not surprisingly their findings are favorable of paper use in comparison with electronic devices. But is it really so?

They're looking into couple of factors:

Raw materials - IP explains that paper comes from a renewable resource - trees, whereas electronic devices are typically made of plastics and other non-renewable resources and often contain chemicals and metals.

They also mention that "every day the paper and forest products industry plants more than three times the number of trees than are harvested -- paper is truly renewable and sustainable." What they don't say there is what trees are cut down and what trees are planted instead.

Mandy Hagith, author of the recommended book "Paper Trails: From Trees to Trash - The True Cost of Paper" helps to clarify the picture:

"No one likes to think of trees being felled, but many of us have a cosy image in our heads that it all comes from recycling or "sustainable" woodlands growing in neat rows, perhaps somewhere in Sweden. It's a myth. Globally, 70 per cent of the 335 million tons of paper the world uses each year comes from natural, un-farmed sources. In Canada, the UK's biggest source of pulp, 90 per cent of its output comes directly from its ancient forests."

The planting part of the equation is no better in some cases, as you can read about on the Green Press Initiative's website. Here's one example:

"In the Southeast U.S., highly diverse forests are being converted into single-species tree farms at an alarming rate. Already 15% of southern forests (32 million acres) consist of plantations...Tree plantations are not inherently bad, and can be part of a sound forest management plan. However, this is not what is occurring in the southeastern U.S. where vast areas of diverse forest are converted to plantations. Included in this region is the Cumberland plateau, which has been designated as a “biogem” by the Natural Resource Defense Council."

Afterwards IP adds in the brochure that "20 percent less CO2 is used per year by person reading a daily printed newspaper versus a person reading web-based news for 30 minutes a day". They don't quote the resource for this fact, but they make it look very conclusive although there are others who claim the opposite.

For example, one comparison of 'Dear Science' got to the conclusion that "if you're reading on an inefficient desktop PC, a mere two hours online may equal the carbon impact of the print edition," and another comparison at Fat Knowledge found out that "reading the physical version of the NY Times for a year uses 7,300 MJ of energy and emits 700 kg of co2. Reading it on a Kindle uses 100 MJ of energy and emits 10 kg of co2."

Energy consumption - the brochure mentions that "The amount of electricity to run a computer for only five months could produce enough paper for the average person to use for an entire year." They also write that "our industry is one of the biggest users of renewable, low-carbon energy in the world".

Interesting fact they don't mention is that "The paper industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions among United States manufacturing industries, and contributes 9% of the manufacturing sector's carbon emissions." (from '15 Facts About the Paper Industry, Global Warming and the Environment')

End of Life - According to the brocure paper is biodegradable and nearly 60 percent of all paper in the U.S. is recycled, whereas only 18 percent of all electronic devices are currently recycled and E-waste constitutes the single largest waste export in the U.S. Here are two more interesting facts to be considered: Paper accounts for 25% of landfill waste and one third of municipal landfill waste (from '15 Facts About the Paper Industry, Global Warming and the Environment') and when paper degrades in a landfill it releases methane, a greenhouse gas emission that is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide (resource: The Green Press Initiative).

International Paper encourages you to ask the right questions before you choose between electronic media and paper and they're certainly right. It's important to get all the facts right on the environmental impacts of both options, especially when there are so many misconceptions about the impacts of both paper and electronic devices.

But as the information is still inconclusive, as we can tell from watching this debate for some time (you are welcome to check our eBooks vs. Paper Books to check research and articles on this issue), it is important to bring ALL the facts and not choose only those that are a good fit with your business.

If IP really wants as they say to "provide thought provoking educational pieces that help our customers better understand important environmental topics", they should add to their brochure some more facts that will give readers the whole picture and not just parts carefully chosen from it.

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Photos and video from the book launch of 'Where the Buttercups Grow' with author Shelley Meyer

We announced earlier this month on the collaboration with Aaspirations Publishing to plant 5,000 trees for their new children's book ‘Where the Buttercups Grow’.

The book launch of this great book was held in Chapters in Surrey with the author Shelley Meyer (see photo above). You can see photos from the book launch on Aaspirations Publishing's website. Here's also a video from the event:

Beautifully written by Shelley Meyer and vividly illustrated by her daughter Tessa Meyer, this inspiring and powerful story will find a spot on every child's list of favorites, especially when they can carry the story forward in their own lives and plant their very own buttercups. This wonderful title is doubly special because for every book 1 tree has been planted.

To order your copy of the book click here, or if you are in the area, drop in at the Chapters at Strawberry Hill, 12101 on 72nd Avenue, Surrey, BC V3W 2M1.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing