FEATURES

CALCULATING PAPER'S CO2 FOOTPRINT

The main point of drafting a standard for calculating the CO2 emissions associated with any category of products or services is the proposed link between the recent rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and climate changes; and the perception that most or all of these changes are undesirable. Whether or not this is true, once any standard for carbon footprinting is published and organisations start to report carbon footprints that conform with it, current attitudes mean that regulatory, marketing and other pressures are likely to encourage such organisations to minimize their standard-compliant carbon footprints... <more>

THE TRUTH ABOUT TREES

Take a straw poll on the street today and ask anyone about trees and you will likely hear one of the following sound bites (or many variations thereof): Trees are the ‘lungs’ of the Earth; Trees ‘breathe’ CO2; Without trees there would be less (or even no) oxygen; Trees are a permanent store for carbon; Deforestation directly contributes to global warmingIt all sounds very reasonable and plausible. But guess what? NONE OF IT IS TRUE... <more>

DOES RECYCLING WORK

Recycling paper relies on the validity of three pillars of thinking:That felling trees for paper is bad; That recycling paper requires fewer fossil fuel emissions; That paper decays in landfill quickly. If we briefly look at these three pillars starting with: “felling trees for paper is bad.” It has long been known that a growing sapling absorbs more CO2 from the atmosphere than a mature tree, which is often carbon neutral. Therefore, if we fell a mature tree (in a managed plantation) and replace it with a sapling we can potentially sequester more CO2... <more>

LANDFILL HAVEN FOR PAPER

At FOPAP we have discovered that many published papers use references from other papers, that use references from yet other papers, but the source of many of the assumptions made, are ultimately not traceable. In other words, the sound bites we hear daily concerning the pro's and con's of such issues as recycling, managed forests and landfill decay often have no credible source, other than a chain of published papers that rely on each other for validity. This is not only wrong, but very damaging to the credibility of the printing and paper industries. The misinformation concerning landfill is one such example... <more>

WHY WE SHOULDN'T RECYCLE

FOPAP is concerned that current drives by national and local government and private sector entities to increase the use of recycled paper and board - as opposed to paper and board produced from virgin fibre - and to shift communications online and away from printed matter may be a serious mistake in terms of carbon emissions, whatever other benefits such moves might have... <more>

PAPER IS CARBON SINK

Disproving conventional theory (and the Kyoto treaty’s accounting rules) that carbon stored in a tree is released the moment it is cut down has substantial implications. Fabiano Ximenes lead a team of Industry & Investment NSW (I&I NSW) researchers who got down and dirty, discovering that wood and some paper products, such as newspapers and magazines, can store carbon for many decades... <more>

IS PRINT GREENER THAN INTERNET

It is easy to assume that using a computer at home or surfing the internet on a laptop costs next to no energy, but the truth could not be more different. In two separate recent studies, the internet was shown to be responsible for emitting 300 million tonnes of CO2 each year; as much as all the fossil fuels burned in Poland; and more than half of the fossil fuels burned here in the UK... <more>

$25 MILLION VIRGIN CLAIM

On Friday 9th February 2007, Richard Branson signalled his intent to take on global warming by issuing a challenge that, he hoped, would defeat it. He offered a purse of $25 million to any one, or any organisation, who could invent a mechanism for removing atmospheric CO2 and return it to the ground “from where it first came”... <more>

160 TONNES OF CO2 - EACH

Did you know there is 160 tonnes of surplus CO2 on planet Earth for every man, woman and child alive today? Assuming that only 20% of people on the planet are capable of doing something about this surplus CO2, this means that 1.4 billion of the Earth's population are now responsible for 800 tonnes each of CO2... <more>

SCIENCE CLASS

Global warming can no longer be doubted. Each passing year as new temperature records are broken, spring comes earlier, flowers bloom sooner and weather becomes more extreme, the ominous impact of decades of fossil fuel burning and its resultant CO2 emissions are beginning to show. Let's begin this science class by first asking you to watch two short lectures ... <more>

PAPER IS DEAD

Thank you to Domtar Paper of Canada for providing these compelling short video insights about paper - and what life might be without it... <more>

NEWS

FOPAP CLAIMS VICTORY OVER WWF AND ITS UNPRINTABLE FILE

FOPAP have claimed a moral victory over the WWF and its unprintable file format - the .wwf - as it has learned that the environmentally active organisation with a dislike for the forestry sector now seems to be publicly supporting managed forestry and even the cutting down of trees for paper - in Australia at least.. <more>

FOPAP SENDS REQUEST TO SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH

Pro-print and paper organisation Friends of Print and Paper – FOPAP – have appealed to Sir David Attenborough to give backing to its claims that paper recycling should be abandoned and a worldwide focus placed instead on sending paper products directly to landfill. <more>

20% OF EUROPEAN TREES DEAD

United Nations express alarm in a new report that states 'a fifth of all trees in the European Forest are either damaged or dead'... <more>

21 MILLION HECTARES OF LAND

Forest expert says 21 million hectares of land in South Western and South Eastern Australia could be given over to forests and woodland in support of FOPAP 'Earth Rescue' plan... <more>

GLOBAL WARMING WOULD END

Global warming would end within a century if demand for print trebled, say FOPAP. The pro print and paper organisation have calculated that the threat to our planet from the effects of global warming could be completely reversed within the next hundred years if the consumption of printed materials trebled over this timeframe... <more>

FOPAP CLAIMS WILL BE STUDIED

FOPAP recycling claims to be studied by government Minister. The organisation has been told this week that the Minister for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), Gregory Barker MP, is to investigate its claims that recycling paper is potentially accelerating climate change and worsening global warming... <more>

FOPAP CALLS LEADERS TO UNITE

New industry organisation FOPAP calls leaders to Unite <more>