Could It Be This Simple … Choose the Right Toilet Paper to Save the Forests … a World Challenge!

 

Could It Be This Simple … Choose the Right Toilet Paper to Save the Forests … a World Challenge!

Who recalls the panicked run on toilet paper a few months ago when a virus became a psychological thriller to ensure your private indoor plumbing was never empty of toilet paper?

As an eco-fiction writer and keen researcher about all ecological matters, once in a while I come across an article that changed my mindset with a new implication that HEMP could save the world because toilet paper is an area that can be improved.  Read the article yourself. 

Here is what I learned that I didn’t know before which made me appreciate even more the wonder of nature itself and worry about human development of business models misaligned with Nature’s ecology’s long term consequences.  

Why Hemp makes an excellent toilet paper...

The fibers are softer than trees, naturally odorless, resistant to mold and several other fungi, have antibacterial and anti-fungal properties which ensure healthy skin. It is both durable and absorbent, absorbing four times its weight!

It is more biodegradable than any other toilet paper.

Why Hemp is better than toilet paper from a trees...

Hemp toilet paper is cheaper to make using less energy and chemicals in the process. To create paper, you only need the cellulose part of the plant. The trees contain 30% cellulose and harsh chemicals are needed to break down the plant to recover the 30%. Hemp contains up to 85% cellulose, almost three times more than trees.

Hemp produces four times more material (cellulose fibers) per acre than trees. Ten tons of hemp can be grown on an acre, making it the best biomass in the world.

Trees need 50 to 100 years before they can be harvested and turned into toilet paper. Hemp production is ready in 70 days

Hemp pulp paper can be made without any chemicals. 

Why is Hemp Better for Earth’s environment?

It can reduce landfill where a quarter of all solid waste comes from pulp and paper mills. One ton of paper pollutes 76 liters of water. (I know, I live near to a town that produces pulp and paper.)

It can also reduce recycled paper waste in landfills or incinerators … even in a digital environment, offices continue to use vast amounts of paper where paper consumption has increased by 400% in 40 years.

It can reduce toxic air waste ... if the average person uses an average of 22 kilos of toilet paper a year, then the production of pulp and paper is responsible for 20% of all toxic air waste. 

It can reduce massive deforestation to make paper, including toilet paper where 35% of trees felled are used for paper making 

Always remember that trees absorb carbon dioxide thus help to mitigate greenhouse gases produced by human activity. They play an important role in carbon sequestration, or the capture and storage of excess carbon dioxide including the soil. It is estimated that a mature tree can consume 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and releases enough oxygen to breathe for two years!

Sometimes a historical perspective can show the intersection between nature and business marketplace development. Before mass production, the story of toilet paper began with a variety of plants that sufficed…often dependent on status … hemp, leaves, hay, or the nearby stream.

In 1857 the first invented commercial toilet paper in the US was made from Manila hemp leaves moistened with aloe and sold as medicated toilet paper versus tearing pages from the catalog.

In 1867, the Scott brothers started making dry toilet paper from wood chips pulp that was chemically bleached with chlorine dioxide. This relatively cheap convenience soon dominated the world market and the brand Scott Paper Company remains the world's largest manufacturer and marketer of sanitary tissue products with operations in 22 countries.

Try and imagine the vast tracts of trees that were cut down for both lumber for commerce and to make toilet paper for a few cents.

Today farmers and business know that an acre of hemp can make four times as much paper as a single acre of forest in 70 days versus 50 years. 

Could it be this simple … choose the right toilet paper to save the forests

 … a world challenge!

Surely, everybody can see the logic along with environmentalists why to use hemp products as an alternative. Facts prove the logic that hemp toilet paper would save millions of trees, move towards a greener future  and help save our planet!

In fact, toilet paper, made from the industrial hemp plant, has been sold in other countries for some time. Consumers have always been the best regulators of marketplaces. Perhaps it is our turn to take the toilet paper challenge and check out hemp products’ suppliers on the internet. A small step can be as simple as replacing your regular toilet paper with hemp-based toilet paper.  

I certainly have done my due diligence and will try some Hempies!

In conclusion, the question to ask yourself is: 

If you could help save a third of the world's forests and their ecological benefits to the 

Earth, would you consider changing your sanitation habits to hemp toilet paper?

I look forward to your answers and comments. Please leave a convenient time to chat:       833 471 4661

Sincerely,

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com 

PS: Another interesting side note about the roles of business and government in using our natural environment for their personal justifications:

Who will ever know the quirk of nature that allows hemp to contain the compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which can produces psychoactive effects in humans?  However, hemp has a variety of cannabis that has only small amounts of THC relative to that grown for the production of marijuana. 

In the 1930’s hemp was poised to be a billion-dollar crop with Henry Ford a big supporter, and marijuana was a common ingredient in medical products until the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 killed the growth of the industry. In 1970, President Nixon classified hemp with no current medical use and high potential for abuse in Schedules of the Controlled Substances Act and hemp  became illegal along with drugs like cocaine, heroin, and marijuana (cannabis).

In 1998, the Canadian government made marijuana legal, both in terms of recreational use and medical applications. I believe it is so important to pursue scientific studies for medical cannabis use and learn all we can about this miracle plant from Nature. 

In the meantime, long live Hempies!

 

How Do We Live in an Anti-Ecological Environment … Four Differences and One Answer

 

How Do We Live in an Anti-Ecological Environment … Four Differences and One Answer  

Sooner or later, wittingly or unwittingly, we must pay for every intrusion on the natural environment.  Barry Commoner

 

If Ecology rules in a certain environment, where does Anti-Ecology rule? 

On one hand, the broad rule of Ecology oversees the integration of variable ecosystems to exist and survive together by maintaining discourse among all of them including human interactions. The guiding ecological principles are manifested to help every organism at whatever level to function better through diversity, make connections, manage feedback loops to improve, adapt to changes and promote co-operation and self-governance, without ego.

The general laws of Ecology imply that everything is connected to everything else, everything has a place and purpose, there is no final waste, where matter and energy are preserved and there is no free lunch…what goes up must come down...what goes round, keeps cycling.   

On the other hand, what does it mean to be in a place that can be called anti-ecological with counter-ecological behavior. 

The most obvious and critical difference would be found in a capitalist environment.

Capitalism can be defined as an “ economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit (rather than state). Private property and the recognition of property rights, capital accumulation, wage labor, voluntary exchange, a price system and competitive markets are all features. Wikipedia

In other words, MONEY becomes the most meaningful connection between things whether social relationships and/or nature. It’s all about the marketplace and consumer communications that know best and want more not less. 

There are four basic differences between commercial capitalism 

and ecological partnerships.  

One:  All Nature’s integrated processes are disconnected and reduced to one common denominator … 

...a revenue process to make profits on the kind of products the marketplace demands via culture and media. Do we want organic coffee, farm-raised mink furs, genetically modified wheat, more plastic doo-dads or finding more finite sources of fossil fuels?

For example,  "In today’s parlance we call this new kind of agroecosystem a monoculture, meaning a part of nature that has been reconstituted to the point that it yields a single species, which is growing on the land only because somewhere there is a strong market demand for it.” Donald Worster

Two: Nature’s encoded programs run on circular systems or cycles 

...but economic production runs on  a linear assembly line where waste is common as long as capital is the main key to protect. Utilize a resource with “no deposit and no return.”

In fact, if pollution happens, treat it as an external side effect that is not part of the production quota. Just consider air pollution caused by a factory is not an internal cost of production but rather an external cost to be borne by nature and society. Its OK if other people or communities or nature itself bear the cost.

To try and recycle can become difficult because of the degree of division of nature.  For example, animals raised in feedlots have natural waste that becomes a serious form of pollution rather than normal fertilizer. Think about plastics that have replaced wood, steel and other products but are not biodegradable for centuries.  

Three: Nature organizes every community for each other’s benefits 

...food, shelter and protection. Businesses are only concerned about manipulating market shares for themselves rather than equity or quality for everyone.  

For example, food becomes more valuable if it  can earn more profits through bulk production with increased nitrogen fertilizers. It doesn’t matter if the mineral compositions of the soil are unbalanced which in turn affects the mineral content of the vegetable grown on it.  Why not use more pesticides to protect the appearance of the produce? Why not use GMO seeds that work in the laboratory composition but may have unknown long-term human side effects? 

In the end, the quality of food is debased, birds and other species are killed, and food chains even for humans are contaminated. What affects one, affects us all.

 Four: the real value of natural wealth is grounded on generating profits 

....with high energy technologies and less labor inputs if possible. Larger corporations, ever-merging, seem to make the major decisions about the technology based on their profitability with the inherent drive to continue to grow on an ever-increasing scale.  Motive is about “mini-cars make mini-profits… we make more money on big cars.”  Non-renewable resources are more quickly depleted, and more wastes dumped into the environment.

My ANSWER

Do we need to continue to believe these statements?

"Nature only exists  because there is a market?

               “Nature’s bounty is a free gift to the property owner to use to make money.”

Part of the answer, I believe, is making an individual choice to adapt to a radically different environment. Commercial capitalism is a closed loop between business and consumer. Only the consumer can manage some of those links, modify social media hype, and adapt to a simpler lifestyle and economy. 

When human contact can become infectious in a global community of 7.5 billion people because of an organic element that may be from nature, then we must become more environmentally conscious citizens and respect ecology’s principles and succession.  

 "We can’t have healthy people on an unhealthy planet. The COVID crisis has shown us that nature, health, inequality and the economy are all interrelated and people are at the center."

 Nature’s bounty and conservation are everyone’s business and we must stand side by side with Nature that it cannot be bought or abused. There must be a bigger call for collective action to reverse nature loss and prevent an array of ecological problems. There must be greater awareness that ecology connects us all as a Big Picture that tries to unify and  broaden participation for everyone and everything. 

Perhaps, in the manner of Nature's ecological succession, we can also learn more about facilitating our own social succession in such changing unprecedented times.

What is your favorite part of nature that has no commercial value?

Comments are always appreciated: 833 471 4661 (leave the best time to chat). 

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

..my pussy willows at the creek on the farm

Personal Discovery of Eco-Fiction, an Author’s Genre that Celebrates Our Relationships with Nature

 

Personal Discovery of Eco-Fiction, an Author’s Genre                   that Celebrates Nature's Relationships 

 

“As environmental crisis grows ever clearer, the best eco-fiction can help 

                           realign our conception of nature…”

It was a special discovery that finally answered my question what kind of e-books talk about water and trees as real characters with plots, problems and resolutions.

Eco-fiction is defined as nature literature based on the relationship between natural settings and human communities. It is a voice drawn from ecological principles that calls attention to act responsibly to be good ethical stewards of the Earth. There may be warnings of dangers to ignore it.

This special author's genre can help answer two questions:

1. Can scientific facts be understood better through an imaginative creative license as an emotional, interactive first-person experience?
2. Can the unique power in figurative language known as personification give human characteristics to non-living things or ideas to make better associations to better relate with a sense of empathy that it matters?

I can now proudly say that I wrote 2 e-books that can be classified as eco-fiction by combining 2 parts: the science of ecology with the art of story writing.

Part 1: Ecology is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment including both nonliving and living factors

Part 2:  A story composition includes basic elements of believable memorable characters, immersive settings, suspenseful plot lines, goals and challenges with resolutions at the end.

The Incredible Journey of a Water Sprite with Roots has the scientific basis of  the water cycle that describes the continuous movement of water as it makes a circuit from the oceans to the atmosphere to the Earth and back again.

The main character is a water sprite with roots who has natural affinity as a water resource and as a plant at the primary level in the ecosystem. He is a complex character existing in three states with a range of abilities, but the mystery is his mission to discover other Cyclical Truths as he returns to the ocean. Indeed, along the way, the suspense and amazement grow as to how many he will find and how they fit into interdependent ecosystems.

Indeed, he develops affection for a micro-organism, shares her pond’s education and experiences pollution at the micro level where it begins. A sub plot develops when he discovers a hydrocarbon molecule and is surprised at their mutual organic bonds for affecting climate change because they share carbon as well as hydrogen molecules. At the end, floating over the ocean he finds peace with his internal conflict  that in order to survive people need to balance and protect their ecosystems.  

Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch introduces a sensitive birch tree who undervalues his existence until a tree dryad inhabits him and her wisdom explains his functions and connections to his community. He lives through the value of seasons, why nature doesn’t produce garbage through the humus cycle, the interdependent food web, the variation of adaptations and seeds, and how a spider web can help to explain morality versus consumerism. He sees the ecological succession that happens after a forest fire and plays his own integral part in supporting his community as his legacy.

Ecological principles were the basis of both stories with a common theme that flourished about diversity and cooperation. The hostile antagonists were people who in short-sighted selfishness attacked or abused these principles. They didn’t understand that DNA starts in the nucleus of the smallest life-form and cycles through natural bio-systems, including the Earth's biosphere.    

In the end, the main question or challenge is how an eco-fiction story can help to change societal norms and beliefs about ecology, environment, and sustainability?

There are lessons to be learned from Nature's elements as real personalities. They can show  how to make the less visible more visible because the greatest law of Nature is we are all connected…if one part is missing, we all suffer.

How else can the water cycle come alive with surprise and mystery by a unique personality that deeply cares about his survival committed to common goals?

How else can a birch tree come alive with his curiosities, fears, flaws, strengths and affinity for his family home and community?

What’s more important than fresh water and a clean water cycle?

What’s more important than a tree to clean the air and combat climate change?

What amazing friends and true superheroes for children to know!

In fact, perhaps, the more we can understand the natural world from real participants, the more we can apply common experiences relative to both nature’s and people’s communities. In fact, don't we all need to adapt to changes in the environment and face common issues of how to manage connections, maintain diversity, broaden participation, and foster adaptive thinking…all ecological principles that require tolerance and patience?

 In the end, science and imagination synchronize and weave fascinating stories that only a water sprite with roots and a living tree can tell; that in order to survive, we need to balance our Earth’s ‘Cyclical Truths’  and protect its ecological ecosystems. 

Most importantly, the hope is for children of all ages to accompany and respect them in our natural environment even more around every chapter and care deeply for Nature's manners, fears and hopes.

Check out the e-books here.

Have you read this unique genre called eco-fiction? The question has been asked why more books aren't written to help explain Nature's point of view when in crisis. 

Comments are always appreciated.

Please note the series of podcast questions in these blogs... 

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

833 471 4661 (leave a time to talk)

Who can better describe the microscopic food chain than a microorganism called Stentor as part of the Great Ecological Cycle?  He teaches the Water Sprite and his class, 

Excerpt: “This is one of the great Cyclical Truths … if one part lives, then the other part lives; if one part is destroyed then the other part will be destroyed in time? Isn't co-operation wonderful, a true democracy through diversity?"

PS:  Much more information about the evolution of Eco-fiction and examples of literary works can be found on dragonfly.org

Podcast Interview Answer # One: What values do trees or forest offer other than lumber?

Podcast Interview Answer # One:  What values do trees or forest offer other than lumber? 

How could she show her respect for a little birch tree that true self mattered as the essence of Nature’s power to share family, community and environment? Why couldn’t they understand that any being, or anybody is more than just about a brain and genes, but a whole ecosystem of connections surrounding oneself?

 Excerpt from Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Have you really stopped and looked at a tree? Have you checked beneath the dirt to see what makes it stand so strong? Have you used an X-ray to show how the inside organization works with both up-and-down flow of nutrients? Have you connected each leave to the sun’s energy and the inside layer of chloroplasts cells containing chlorophyll that combines the sun’s energy with carbon dioxide and water to make a carbohydrate compound, the primary source of food on Earth?

There is so much more to know about a single tree beyond beautifying our surroundings and adding cool shade and reducing wind. There is a far greater relationship to its natural environment as it provides shelter and food to a diverse collection of living things. 

Imagine what a forest of trees can provide. Forests cover more than 30% of the Earth's land surface, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

The main advantages are:

• 80% of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests
• monitors climate change
• prevents fertile land from erosion or becoming too arid
• produces a carbohydrate compound called cellulose used to make clothes and paper (via  photosynthesis)
• supplies three-quarters of the Earth’s freshwater from its watersheds
• manufactures precious oxygen back to the air to breathe
• absorbs carbon dioxide thus helping to mitigate greenhouse gases produced by human activity
• plays an important role in carbon sequestration, or the capture and storage of excess carbon dioxide including the soil  

(Note: As a tree matures, it can consume 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and releases enough oxygen for you to breathe for two years!)

It's impossible to imagine a world without forests. But you don’t need to imagine a world where deforestation is increasing several dire consequences for our planet Earth and Nature’s sustainability.

Deforestation is the permanent removal of trees to make room for something else such as more agricultural land, ranching, or using the timber for construction and manufacturing.

Deforestation is seen as the second-leading cause of climate change because less carbon dioxide is removed from the air, as well as producing nearly 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. Burning fossil fuels is the first. (The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 

Of major concern is that jungle habitats and their animals are becoming decimated. Tropical trees are being cut down for four reasons: to make wood products, raise beef cattle, plant soy crops and grow palm oil plantations. Palm oil is cheap, versatile and commonly found in nearly half of supermarket products from crackers to lipsticks and shampoo. Even though this production is profitable for companies, it has also resulted in land grabs, social conflict, and violation of human rights.

But the restorative power of Nature will return if given a chance.  

The trees of the forest can be replanted in cleared areas or simply allow the forest ecosystem to regenerate over time as natural plant succession. In time, through the power of ecological succession plant life will reestablish, wildlife will return, water systems will reemerge, carbon will continue to be sequestered, and soils will be replenished.  

In some ways, people can do their part to limit their support for deforestation. You can buy  certified wood products, use less paper, and not consume products that use palm oil.

Of course, plant a tree when possible. If not, find a pet tree and delight in its being.

Check out  Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Kindle edition 

Questions and comments are always appreciated,

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

1 833 471 4661 (please leave a message for best time to call back)

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

For other podcast questions check blog....

Excerpt: "Your lesson is to show others that even as a single tree you can share the spirit from a forest of trees where people can renew a sense of wonderment of peaceful co-existence.  

There is nothing to consume, nothing that money can buy, except to enjoy the splendor of trees and vibrancy of nature where everything lives, and everything dies and is taken into the soil, from fossils on up. There is order in chaos, prediction in patterns, trust in renewal, no illusion within honesty without fault or foolishness. Trees fall to the forest floor along with dead insects, animal droppings, twigs from an old squirrel’s nest, the bones of the old squirrel, all rot their way into the soil to give life again. Still you feel fascination, a place to love with a belonging that lasts beyond any generations that ensures rebirth with belonging to all.”  Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch 

...my local baby birch tree pet