Are you still wiping your ass with virgin forests?

Are you using toilet paper with 100% recycled paper content? Or are you still using that plush extra-soft toilet paper?

Do you realize that those 'cushiony soft' papers come from virgin trees, many taken from irreplaceable old-growth wilderness? That means every time you buy toilet paper you are supporting the cutting of precious trees, you are taking home trees. In this time when our environment is exploited and considered nothing more then a source for raw materials, this is the ultimate insult! We are wasting our precious environment and endangering ourselves and all future life on earth for temporary, instant material gain, in this case slightly softer toilet paper.

Trees are the 'lungs' of the earth. Deforestation is a crucial issue and an incredibly dangerous obsession of modern industry. All over the world forests are being slashed and burned for irresponsible agriculture. Even when trees are replanted in logging, it takes minutes to kill a tree, but hundreds of years to grow to full-size. Trees are absorb and hold carbon-dioxide, but when we cut them down, all of the carbon-dioxide absorbed is released back into the atmosphere. This wanton and ill-planned tree killing has to be checked, it needs to stop. Better, more sustainable farming techniques need to be implemented and people need to start using alternative fibers for paper products, including recycled paper.

If this is the first time you are realizing how wrong and selfish it is for humans to kill trees and destroy forest ecosystems for TP, then I implore you to make the right choice from now on and use only 100% recycled paper toilet tissue. If you are balking and defending the softer toilet paper and fully intend on continuing to buy it, you need to recheck your priorities. Does the texture of what you wipe on your ass mean more then clean air for future generations? Is that the legacy you want to be part of- selfish fools who create pain and suffering for all others and the yet unborn generations? People who thought life was about material consumption, that the only measure of what is right is what one can monetarily afford? We cannot afford to think this way as a species. We need to evolve if we want to prevent lots of suffering for ourselves and others.

Marcal's Small Steps 2-ply (they make a 1-ply, but I think 2-ply is actually more efficient and much softer) is available at the local grocery store, is 100% recycled, and is very affordable. If its not soft enough for you and you think that you "need" the plusher paper, you should eat more whole grains. If you eat a high fiber diet you'll be pleasantly surprized- you'll be more regular and you'll be neater too, less wiping required.

The well-being of the earth should come before personal taste at all times, considering that we ALL depend on her well-being for our survival.

New Bolivian Law Will Give the Earth Rights

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/new-bolivian-law-would-give-rights-to-nature.html#ixzz1Ji0GwlWG

By Erin La Rosa, ecorazzi


It’s an annoying fact that not everyone recycles or turns the lights off or makes efforts to so much as conserve water. So, what if the government stepped in and forced everyone to do all of those things?

That’s what lawmakers in Bolivia are taking steps toward with their “Law of Mother Earth” bill. It’s a piece of legislation that would grant nature equal rights to humans.

The laws would be the first of their kind, with 11 in total, and would recognize that the planet has an equal right to be protected.

The Guardian outlined the laws as: “the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.”


Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said when describing the new law, “Earth is the mother of all…the harmony [between man and nature] must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration.”

The South American country has been threatened by environmental changes, with temperatures steadily increasing and its glaciers (a source of water and electricity for them) disappearing at rapid rates.
Hopefully Bolivia’s bold move will lead to laws like this being implemented elsewhere!

Movie Review: Dirt!

Dirt! is an informative documentary that teaches about the importance of our soil for our very existence. It's a fairly short film, 80 minutes, but the 33 extra minutes of deleted scenes are very ineresting and very worthwhile as well.

Dirt! shows that soil is actually a rich ecosystem of life, not just dead stuff. You will see and understand easily the difference between sustainable and unsustainable agriculture. All in the course of discussing dirt we see illustrated the true interconnection of all life. Various experts convey diverse aspects of the science of soil, the reality of climate change, the necessary remedies to protect the future and the array of other positive effects on societies that these steps will produce. These people include photographers, a mycologist, a wine expert, sustainable farmers in America, France & India, chef Alice Waters, biologists and more.

If you want to understand what is happening to our environment, why we should make change to the way we live, this film illustrates it clearly in a non-political, non-didactic way.

Animation clips make this a family friendly film that simplifies complex information, however, it is an intelligent film that is meant for adults and does not talk down to viewers.

Many more important points are raised, such as the dangers of the globalization of food, the lack of traditional food culture in America, the power of gardening to rehabilitate prisoners and the fact that if just Ethiopia was farmed sustainably, it could feed nearly all of Africa.

Dirt! is an important movie, I sincerely hope that you will watch it, perhaps with your family or friends. When spiritual cultures say that all aspects of nature are alive & have spirit, the Western lens often sees them as "primative", or "savage", but this film shows how ignorant and savage we are to wantonly destroy the ecosystem that provides our food. Fertility cannot come from chemicals, man does not out-smart nature. Chemical fertility leads to soil death & desertification. The only true fertility comes by nature's processes.

Once again, humankind's superiority complex is proven pompous & wrong. We are only part of nature. We are all future dirt.