in SF: Billions of catalogs devastate forests and impact climate

San Francisco, CA - ForestEthics will be joined by local environmental activists and 'Candace the Caribou' in San Francisco today at a lively protest to highlight the devastating effects that catalogs sent by companies such as Crate & Barrel have on Endangered Forests and global warming. Candace will set up her lemonade stand at the Crate & Barrel in Union Square at 55 Stockton Street to educate the public about how Crate & Barrel and other catalogers contribute to global warming. 'Candace the Caribou' left her Boreal Forest home in Northern Ontario earlier this summer to bring an important message to U.S. catalog retailers: Stop destroying my habitat for wasteful catalogs! This is the fourth in a series of visits Candace is making this summer to U.S. cities, where she has exposed other companies such as J. Crew, Eddie Bauer, JC Penney, and Sears/Lands' End.

Over the past three years, ForestEthics has worked with companies like Dell and Williams-Sonoma to develop industry-leading environmentally-sound practices. In late 2006, ForestEthics announced an end to its two-year campaign against Victoria's Secret, marking the transition of the former environmental offender to an environmental leader. The companies that 'Candace the Caribou' will be visiting this summer have thus far refused to change their ways. "Companies like Dell, Williams-Sonoma and Victoria's Secret have set a new environmental standard," said Shana Ortman of ForestEthics. "The rest of the catalog industry can no longer pretend this is not an issue. They will have to meet or exceed these standards to stay competitive and avoid public outcry about their participation in Global Warming and Endangered Forest destruction."

Catalog retailers send out 20 billion catalogs a year. Almost none of the paper contains any recycled content. This means over 8 million tons of trees are logged annually just for catalogs. Because the industry's response rate to their catalogs is less than 3 percent, the result is a staggering amount of forest destruction for minimal returns. Deforestation was the second-largest contributor of global warming emissions in 2000, creating more than other industry sources or transportation, and surpassed only by power production. The pulp and paper industry is the fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases among U.S. manufacturing industries.

The catalog industry is causing the destruction of forests such as North America's Boreal Forest. Stretching from Alaska to Canada's Atlantic coast, the Boreal is the size of thirteen Californias and provides one of our planet's first lines of defense against global warming. The Boreal is home to hundreds of First Nations Indigenous communities, and provides critical habitat for a diverse range of species, including endangered caribou and half of North America's songbirds._"The catalog industry is destroying Endangered Forests, causing environmental damage, air and water pollution, human rights violations, and habitat loss for species," said PJ McCosky, a local activist. "We're letting them know as citizens, customers, and dedicated activists that they can't get away with their reckless practices any more."

ForestEthics, a nonprofit with staff in Canada, the United States and Chile, recognizes that individual people can be mobilized to create positive environmental change-and so can corporations. Armed with this unique philosophy, ForestEthics has protected more than seven million acres of Endangered Forests. Visit http://www.ForestEthics.org or http://www.catalogcutdown.org for more information.
# # #