Our position: It's great to see Orlando's attractions becoming ...

Earth Day reminds consumers of the positive environmental impact they can make by changing their habits.

[Blah blah blah]

plastic to paper, what cr@p!

Want to make a difference? Plant trees in your parking lots!!

[Christina Kuhlman]

While I applaud SeaWorld's efforts to conserve, I think it is important for readers to realize that the Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks are supporting forest destruction ... in their restrooms.

Kimberly-Clark, the company that supplies toiletries for the parks, is sourcing virgin fiber for its disposable paper products from the North American Boreal forest by clear-cutting it. For this reason, it is imperative that the parks replace their paper products with products tat are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Many of Kimberly-Clark's most popular products (such as Kleenex brand tissues) contain 0% recycled content, so it is important that the company increase the amount of recycled content in its products.

Representing one quarter of the worlds ancient growth forests, the Boreal acts as a capacious carbon reservoir, a fact that is especially significant as 95% of America's native forests are gone.

Furthermore, as Kimberly-Clark destroys the Boreal for tissue, countless animals are losing a part of their home. Billions of birds fly to the Boreal to breed and it is also home to the world's largest population of caribou and wolves. For the parks to continue to use K-C products would therefore contradict their Conservation Fund's mission "to work with purpose and passion on behalf of wildlife and habitats worldwide, encouraging sustainable solutions."

According to Keep Seminole Beautiful, over a fifty-year lifetime, one tree provides services worth approximately $162,000 in oxygen production, air pollution control, water recycling, and erosion control. Some of the trees in the Boreal are 180 years old. Clearly these trees are worth more to us in the forest than flushed down the toilet.

As the largest brewing company in the U.S., Anheuser-Busch has the resources and the responsibility to switch to more responsible paper products. And you have the ability to help them make the switch. Contact park directors and request that they switch to a brand of paper that is FSC certified. Anheuser-Busch, with its ten parks, could save thousands, maybe millions of trees just by switching to paper with more recycled content.

In your own homes, refuse to support forest destruction by avoiding Kimberly-Clark paper products. In addition to Kleenex, K-C also manufactures Scott, Viva, and Cottonelle brand tissue products.

[Blah blah blah]

Yeah who cares? You are nit picking.

While I am not an eco-terrorist, just want some common sense planning when it comes to designing different things.

Planting trees in parking lots is not only easy, it is common sense. Big black areas absorb heat and trees would just make parking and walking that much more enjoyable.

or schools are cutting down the trees and not replacing them, why does everyone want to pick on industry that is only supplying a demand? Kimberly Clark, Georgia Pacific, etc... are easy targets. How trees could be planted in our apartment complexes, schools, mall parking lots, etc...? Attack them, at east Kimberly Clark and said company will replant, WHEN WILL YOU AND OTHERS REPLANT YOUR SUBDIVISIONS AND etal?

Christina Kuhlman wrote:

While I applaud SeaWorld's efforts to conserve, I think it is important for readers to realize that the Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks are supporting forest destruction ... in their restrooms.
Kimberly-Clark, the company that supplies toiletries for the parks, is sourcing virgin fiber for its disposable paper products from the North American Boreal forest by clear-cutting it. For this reason, it is imperative that the parks replace their paper products with products tat are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Many of Kimberly-Clark's most popular products (such as Kleenex brand tissues) contain 0% recycled content, so it is important that the company increase the amount of recycled content in its products.
Representing one quarter of the worlds ancient growth forests, the Boreal acts as a capacious carbon reservoir, a fact that is especially significant as 95% of America's native forests are gone.
Furthermore, as Kimberly-Clark destroys the Boreal for tissue, countless animals are losing a part of their home. Billions of birds fly to the Boreal to breed and it is also home to the world's largest population of caribou and wolves. For the parks to continue to use K-C products would therefore contradict their Conservation Fund's mission "to work with purpose and passion on behalf of wildlife and habitats worldwide, encouraging sustainable solutions."
According to Keep Seminole Beautiful, over a fifty-year lifetime, one tree provides services worth approximately $162,000 in oxygen production, air pollution control, water recycling, and erosion control. Some of the trees in the Boreal are 180 years old. Clearly these trees are worth more to us in the forest than flushed down the toilet.
As the largest brewing company in the U.S., Anheuser-Busch has the resources and the responsibility to switch to more responsible paper products. And you have the ability to help them make the switch. Contact park directors and request that they switch to a brand of paper that is FSC certified. Anheuser-Busch, with its ten parks, could save thousands, maybe millions of trees just by switching to paper with more recycled content.
In your own homes, refuse to support forest destruction by avoiding Kimberly-Clark paper products. In addition to Kleenex, K-C also manufactures Scott, Viva, and Cottonelle brand tissue products.

[Christina Kuhlman]

Please keep your comments respectful. "Yeah who cares" is rather incisive.

I agree with you. It is important to replant in public areas. However, K-C replanting does not really pertain to the issue I'm discussing. The problem with what K-C is doing is that it is sourcing fiber from an ancient growth forest and not from a plantation. This is a forest that has existed for over 10,000 years and represents some of the only forest we have left in America.

Not only is the location inappropriate, but the management is unsustainable as well. These trees are being clear-cut. Clear-cutting is the type of deforestation most harmful to the environment. It destroys the homes of many organisms without providing paths for them to travel to other parts of the forest. It also erodes soil, siltrates water, and causes landslides, sometimes putting people in direct danger. Also, clear-cutting changes the sun's level of penetration to the ground which changes the microclimactic conditions, thereby reconstructing the heirarchy of plant species in the area, and perhaps providing a space for invasive species to inhabit. The change in plant life in turn changes the populations of the animals that live in the forest. Additionally, clear-cutting speeds runoff, causing flooding as trees aren't available to take up water. Finally, replanting results in even-aged trees which does not provide organisms the habitat they need.

To a certain degree, Kimberly-Clark is meeting a demand. But if they want to make products with virgin fiber, they can do it with fiber sourced from FSC certified logging operations. I say that they are supplying a demand to a degree because I highly doubt than anyone when grocery shopping decides that they need facial tissue made from 100% virgin fiber and then heads for the Kleenex. They would just say "I need facial tissue. Kleenex is facial tissue. I'll buy this." Ignorance is what's driving the market here. No one questions what's in their facial tissue. Essentially, K-C is creating the demand for virgin fiber tissue simply because that's what the company uses. If K-C offered tissue made from 100% recycled fiber, the demand for traditional Kleenex would go down and the demand for recycled Kleenex would go up as people realize that they have more options.

Here's another thing to think about. If K-C is just supplying the demand, what will happen when they have used up their resources? If the rest of the trees available to K-C are cut (which they will be at this rate) loggers will be out of jobs and K-C will have to turn to another forest to destroy such as those in developing nations until all the trees are gone. There is no question that we will have to find alternative solutions for our demands. But we shouldn't wait until we deplete all our resources before implementing simple sustainable solutions.

[Christina Kuhlman]

I don't think I am nitpicking; I am making a suggestion that is easy and affordable for the parks to implement, yet has a profound impact, saving trees in the thousands or millions. It would also serve to enhance the company's green image with little effort. Furthermore, if signs were placed in or near restrooms, the parks could educate hundreds of people in one minute about a simple change they can make in their own homes.

However, what you are suggesting is that the parks spend millions of dollars to rip up the asphalt in their lots, replacing space for valuable customers all to plant perhaps a few hundred landscape trees (essentially big sticks). Although it is hot in the lots, I doubt that the evapotranspiration of a few big sticks would be enough to cool the lots noticeably.

Furthermore, not all trees are created equal. These trees are not of equal ecological significance as those in the Boreal and would serve as little more than decoration. In addition to ripping up their lots, the parks would have to extend their irrigation systems to stretch across their enormous lots, costing more millions. There is also no gain for the company here. I think it would be very hard to convince Anheuser-Busch to spend millions of dollars on something that won't help them at all. Nor would it be of significant help to anyone else.

[Christina Kuhlman]

To a certain degree, Kimberly-Clark is meeting a demand. But if they want to make products with virgin fiber, they can do it with fiber sourced from FSC certified logging operations. I say that they are supplying a demand to a degree because I highly doubt than anyone when grocery shopping decides that they need facial tissue made from 100% virgin fiber and then heads for the Kleenex. They would just say "I need facial tissue. Kleenex is facial tissue. I'll buy this." Ignorance is what's driving the market here. No one questions what's in their facial tissue. Essentially, K-C is creating the demand for virgin fiber tissue simply because that's what the company uses. If K-C offered tissue made from 100% recycled fiber, the demand for traditional Kleenex would go down and the demand for recycled Kleenex would go up as people realize that they have more options.

Here's another thing to think about. If K-C is just supplying the demand, what will happen when they have used up their resources? If the rest of the trees available to K-C are cut (which they will be at this rate) loggers will be out of jobs and K-C will have to turn to another forest to destroy such as those in developing nations until all the trees are gone. There is no question that we will have to find alternative solutions for our demands. But we shouldn't wait until we deplete all our resources before implementing simple sustainable solutions.

[Christina Kuhlman]

I don't think I am nitpicking; I am making a suggestion that is easy and affordable for the parks to implement, yet has a profound impact, saving trees in the thousands or millions. It would also serve to enhance the company's green image with little effort. Furthermore, if signs were placed in or near restrooms, the parks could educate hundreds of people in one minute about a simple change they can make in their own homes.

However, what you are suggesting is that the parks spend millions of dollars to rip up the asphalt in their lots, replacing space for valuable customers all to plant perhaps a few hundred landscape trees (essentially big sticks). Although it is hot in the lots, I doubt that the evapotranspiration of a few big sticks would be enough to cool the lots noticeably. Furthermore, not all trees are created equal. These trees are not of equal ecological significance as those in the Boreal and would serve as little more than decoration. In addition to ripping up their lots, the parks would have to extend their irrigation systems to stretch across their enormous lots, costing more millions. There is also no gain for the company here. I think it would be very hard to convince Anheuser-Busch to spend millions of dollars on something that won't help them at all. Nor would it be of significant benefit to anyone else.

[Christina Kuhlman]

Please keep your comments respectful. "Yeah who cares" is rather incisive.

I agree with you. It is important to replant in public areas. However, K-C replanting does not really pertain to the issue I'm discussing. The problem with what K-C is doing is that it is sourcing fiber from an ancient growth forest and not from a plantation. This is a forest that has existed for over 10,000 years and represents some of the only forest we have left in America.

Not only is the location inappropriate, but the management is unsustainable as well. These trees are being clear-cut. Clear-cutting is the type of deforestation most harmful to the environment. It destroys the homes of many organisms without providing paths for them to travel to other parts of the forest. It also erodes soil, siltrates water, and causes landslides, sometimes putting people in direct danger. Also, clear-cutting changes the sun's level of penetration to the ground which changes the microclimactic conditions, thereby reconstructing the heirarchy of plant species in the area, and perhaps providing a space for invasive species to inhabit. The change in plant life in turn changes the populations of the animals that live in the forest. Additionally, clear-cutting speeds runoff, causing flooding as trees aren't available to take up water. Finally, replanting results in even-aged trees which does not provide organisms the habitat they need.

[Christina Kuhlman]

I apologize for the reposts! The website was acting up.