Kleenex, one of the most popular brands of tissue products in the world, contributes to the destruction of ancient forests. Its manufacturer, the Kimberly-Clark corporation, has been unwilling to improve its practices, continuing to rely on paper and pulp made from clearcut ancient forest including Canada’s Boreal forest. Kimberly-Clark clears these ancient forests, essential in fighting climate change and providing home to wildlife like caribou, wolves, eagles and bears,into products that are flushed down the toilet or thrown away.

Kimberly-Clark is the largest tissue product company in the world. It manufacturers the popular Kleenex brand of tissue products, which is sold in several formats – toilet paper, facial tissue and napkins. Kimberly-Clark produces 3.7 million tonnes (4.08 million tons) of tissue products annually and generates net sales of $14.3 billion US. The company has offices, factories and mills in 38 countries, and its products are sold in 150 countries. Kimberly-Clark also produces a line of commercial toilet paper and paper towels that are sold to institutions like universities, high schools, governments and businesses.

As consumers and inhabitants of this planet, it is our duty to send a clear message to companies that disregard our natural treasures and destroy the very home in which they prosper.

Take Action! Don’t purchase Kimberly-Clark Kleenex products.

The Report Card

HP, Lenovo, and Dell haven’t fared too badly in some of Greenpeace’s previous e-waste reports, but it looks like three companies have fallen well short of the organization’s expectations this time around, with each getting called out for failing to live up to their promises. Specifically, all three had said that they would eliminate vinyl plastic (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in their products by the end of this year, but they’ve now apparently told Greenpeace that they won’t be able to meet that timeline, and only Lenovo has come forward set a new deadline (the end of 2010). The big winner, on the other hand, is Philips, which has jumped from 15th place to 4th as a result of some new recycling initiatives, prompted at least in part by public pressure. And, as you can see above, Nintendo is once again dead last, although we’re pretty sure that’s simply a result of sheer mass at this point.

What a shame. If Apple is able to move their entire laptop line to a sustainable and environmentally friendly model, why can’t these companies? Let’s put the pressure on!

According to This Is The West Country:

Staff eventually lured it out with fish scraps – but not before it bit through 20lb fishing line.

Curator Matt Slater said: “As part of our tropical marine displays we have been painstakingly propagating a variety of corals. They are extremely slow-growing and every one we have lost to these attacks was a major blow.

“In the end it got so bad that I decided to literally take the display apart to find out who was responsible. I could hardly believe my eyes when I finally caught sight of the culprit.

“It really does look like something out of a horror movie! It’s over four feet long with these bizarre-looking jaws. Having done some research we also discovered that it is covered with thousands of bristles which are capable of inflicting a sting resulting in permanent numbness’.”

The worm has been taken into protective custody, placed in its own tank. No word yet on whether it is pooping out spice, or whether it’s going to be used to create the water of life.

via This Is The West Country

Second Earth

One Earth just doesn’t cut it anymore. As our population grows and we continue to consume resources at an alarming rate, we’ll need the equivalent of a second Earth by 2030 to maintain our current lifestyle. That’s the finding of the latest report from the World Wildlife Fund. And since we don’t have a spare lying around, it’s time to make a drastic change.

The WWF, in conjunction with the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network, released The Living Planet Report 2008, which projects humanity’s ecological footprint relative to the Earth’s biocapacity. And, after looking at factors such as deforestation, water consumption, pollution, climate change, and overexploitation of wildlife, the findings are dire:

Our global footprint now exceeds the world’s capacity to regenerate by about 30 per cent. If our demands on the planet continue at the same rate, by the mid-2030s we will need the equivalent of two planets to maintain our lifestyles. And this year’s report captures, for the first time, the impact of our consumption on the Earth’s water resources and our vulnerability to water scarcity in many areas.

But the report isn’t entirely pessimistic. The WWF believes that humanity can alter the path of overconsumption and, by turning toward sustainable practices, close the gap between mankind’s ecological footprint and the Earth’s biocapacity:

The good news is that we have the means to reverse the ecological credit crunch – it is not too late to prevent an irreversible ecological recession setting in. This report identifies the key areas where we need to transform our lifestyles and economies to put us on a more sustainable trajectory.

It’s either that or get on that space colonization thing ASAP.

More at Phenomenica.

Anthropologists have never directly observed a female-dominated society among humans, but many have speculated that such societies would be less violent than male-dominated ones. Now that postulate has been challenged by hard evidence. Bonobos, a primate species that is female-dominated and bisexual, have now been observed hunting and killing other apes in the wild. A group of evolutionary anthropologists will publish a paper in Current Biology tomorrow documenting evidence that the supposedly peaceful bonobos are as bloodthirsty as their male-dominated chimp counterparts.

Evolutionary anthropologist Gottfried Hohmann, a co-author of the study, says this discovery might change how we understand male dominance in society:

In chimpanzees, male-dominance is associated with physical violence, hunting, and meat consumption. By inference, the lack of male dominance and physical violence is often used to explain the relative absence of hunting and meat eating in bonobos. Our observations suggest that, in contrast to previous assumptions, these behaviors may persist in societies with different social relations.

“AT&T’s Consumer Services Agreement is substantively unconscionable and therefore unenforceable to the extent that it purports to waive the right to class actions, require confidentiality, shorten the Washington Consumer Protection Act statute of limitations, and limit availability of attorney fees. … Courts will not be easily deceived by attempts to unilaterally strip away consumer protections and remedies by efforts to cloak the waiver of important rights under an arbitration clause.”

The canadian telecom market provides yet another example of how little competition puts consumers last. This time Telus is up to its scheming tricks by forcing customers to go on a less valuable wireless broadband plan or face cancellation. This is made possible by Telus’ vague and obscure TOS (terms of agreement) only lawyers read and understand.

Canadians are getting some relief by the recent airwave spectrum auction which will open up competition, mainly from american companies. This, however, won’t happen for a few more years.

This follows after Telus and Bell charges customers for receiving incoming text messages – another punch in the guts for consumers.

“Canadian telco TELUS sold a bunch of (expensive) Unlimited EV-DO aircard accounts last winter and are now summarily canceling them or forcing people to switch to much less valuable plans. TELUS is citing ‘Violations,’ but their Terms Of Service (see #5) are utterly vague and self-contradictory. The TELUS plans were marketed as being unlimited, without the soft/hard caps that the other providers had at the time. They were purchased by a lot of rural Canadians who had no other choice except dialup. Now TELUS is forcing everyone to switch from a $75 Unlimited plan to a $65 1GB plan, and canceling those who won’t switch. Have a look at the thread at Howardforums, a discussion of the TELUS ToS (in red at the bottom), an EV-DO blogger who’s been a victim, a post at Electronista, and of course Verizon getting fined for doing the same thing! Michael Geist has taken an interest as well.”

Telus forcing customers off unlimited plans.