 
by
Virato
, Editor & Publisher, Asheville
Magazine
Listen to Virato
(different from text below)
Also see below: Earth Talk
from the editors of E Magazine
 ve
been in publishing and marketing for over 40 years. I
am a serious advocate of applying consciousness to publishing, and
other communications.
 In 1994, after nearly two decades of publishing New
Frontier Magazine on paper, I made the decision to no
longer contribute to one aspect of planetary unconsciousness...PRINTING!
I would no longer support the destruction
of trees1 (less oxygen, more planetary heat) used in publishing, and to the
pollution created in it's manufacturing (just go visit nearby Canton's
paper mill, or smell the sulfur hydroxide fumes in the West Asheville
air or check out the pollution of the Pigeon River2 and the Asheville
water table).
I would no longer add to the pollution and space
consumption of paper waste disposal3 or recycling (which
also uses energy and resources as well as the fumes, ground
pollution and fuel consumption of the delivery
vehicles, and the toxic chemical spill-off from paper
processing, and the polluting
inks from printing plants).
To top it off, the cost of using paper
vs. the Internet, whether for personal or business communication, is
probably in the 10 to 1 ratio! Check out ads in local print
media then see ours...
It goes on and on...
The irony is that WE
DON'T NEED TO DO THIS!
 So, don't blame Mountain Xpress, Spirit
in the Smokies, Natural Health, etc. for what
they have to charge for advertising space. Most of
their ad revenue goes to their printer! When I was printing
New Frontier Magazine, I paid the printer
$30,000 a month to print 60,000 copies with only a glossy color cover
and black and white inside. I now pay one of the leading
Internet hosting servers4 less than $30 per month, and have over
300,000 readers!! ...and I provide sound, color and a interactive
capability! Almost impossible to comprehend isn't it?
Add to this the Internet's targeted
demographics capability, flexibility, speed and multimedia...and
frankly it's insane to still use paper for communication! Anyway
as I said, I am an advocate of consciousness in communication.
In 1995, six months after I ceased publishing New
Frontier Magazine on paper , I co-founded the Greater
Asheville Internet Association. The function of G.A.I.A
(by the way it was unplanned, but the acronym GAIA is
also the Greek name for goddess of the earth)
was to educate and promote the use of the Internet.
Later that year I
founded Asheville
Magazine
So, that's it....
I now offer free 2 hour seminars on
the effective use of the Internet for all of the above. I estimate
that 90% of the people who use, or are aware of, the Internet rarely
have a grasp of its full potential. All I need is to get a few
folks together.
Just call me 254-6620 and let's talk...
EARTH TALK
From the Editors of
E/The Environmental Magazine
Dear EarthTalk:
What happened to the “paperless office” that computers were
supposed to create, and what is the environmental impact of our
paper usage?
-- Michelle Barnes, Virginia Beach, VA
T he
paperless office does appear to still be a distant dream. A
recent University of California-Berkeley study found
that, worldwide, the amount of printed matter generated between
1999 and 2002 not only did not decrease--it grew by 36 percent.
The quantity of information we now store electronically is
growing in leaps and bounds. And while we’re using less paper as
a percentage of total
data output, we’re still using more paper. “Contrary to notions
of paperless offices floated by futurists in the late 1980s and
early 1990s,” the report said, “the consumption of office paper
has gone up substantially in recent years.”
Not surprisingly, the
United States is the biggest paper consumer, accounting for 33
percent of all printed material. U.S. paper producers alone
consume one billion trees--or 12,430 square miles of
forests--every year, while producing 735 pounds of paper for
every American. Only five percent of America’s virgin forests
now remain, while 70 percent of the fiber consumed by the pulp
and paper industry continues to be generated from virgin wood.
Besides consuming trees
and habitat, processing paper generates tons of industrial
pollutants. The pulp and paper industry is the third-largest
industrial polluter in both Canada and the U.S., releasing more
than 220 million pounds of toxic pollution--including dioxin, a
cancer-causing byproduct of the chlorine-bleaching process--into
the air, ground and water each year. Paper is also the dominant
material in solid waste. And in the U.S., paper-producing
companies are the third-largest energy consumer.
In recent years, advocates
for ecologically sustainable paper, like the San Francisco-based
Conservatree, have grown more vocal in support of both
increasing the use of recycled paper and developing alternatives
to wood-based paper. As a small step, they have succeeded in
persuading large paper retailers like Staples, Kinko’s,
Office Max and
Office Depot to offer higher amounts of recycled content in the
paper they sell.
Alternatives to tree-based
paper include various kinds of agricultural wastes, like corn
and rice husks, a plant called kenaf, and hemp. One agricultural
waste paper is made from 100 percent bagasse fiber, left over
from sugar cane production. Kimberly-Clark uses bagasse in some
of its paper towels and tissues. But many consider kenaf, a
relative of okra and cotton, and hemp, to be the most promising
alternatives, especially for office papers. Kenaf, which
originated in the East Indies and is now grown in the U.S.,
Thailand and China, is making inroads as a wood-based paper
substitute. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has deemed kenaf “the best option for tree-free papermaking in the U.S.”
Hemp is a very strong
fiber, making it excellent for paper processing, and it is
easily bleached without chlorine. Beginning in 1840,
American-grown hemp was used to make manila paper. Hemp
cultivation has been illegal in the U.S. since the end of World
War II, because it is a relative of the plant grown for
marijuana. But the strain of hemp grown for paper does not
contain enough quantities of psychoactive chemicals for it to be
used as a drug--and its cultivation is encouraged in 29
countries around the world.
CONTACTS:
Conservatree, (415) 721-4230,
www.conservatree.com;
Kimberly-Clark,
www.kimberly-clark.com;
USDA Agricultural Research Center, (301) 504-5664,
www.usda.gov.
NOTES:
1.
While
recycling is admirable, and I fully support it, paper from new,
un-recycled tree pulp, because of its lower cost, is
overwhelming used for the printing of newspapers and magazines. And
while one company, International Paper, does farm some
tress in Canada, most comes from government land. Much of it from
our own backyard!
2.
Over
the past two decades there have been countless Federal and County
fines imposed on this plant for toxic pollution of this river which
flows into Tennessee
3.
Paper
for printed matter (letters, newspapers, magazines, flyers, inserts,
journals, newsletters, books, pamphlets, forms, etc.) generates a greater
volume of toxic waste in landfills, incineration and other
methods of disposal then any other species of garbage. Only a tiny percentage is ever recycled,
which also uses non-renewable resources and pollutes in itself!
4.
While electronic
publishing does use some resources, it amounts to less than 3% of
that used by paper publishing. And while there is no question that
old computers find their way into waste, this amount to less than 5%
of the toxic waste of paper!
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