Bill Swallow wrote: > At best they are an 11-year renewable resource. So, yes. > > On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 12:19 PM, Rick Quatro <frameexpert at truevine.net> > wrote: > >> German culture is much more green-minded than ours, so among our German > >> customers, especially in manufacturing, printed docs are anathema, proof > >> that we ignorant Americans will destroy our planet in short order. > > > > Huh? Is there is a shortage of trees in America?
Um, no, there is not. And whether the cycle is 11 years, or 7, or 20 is irrelevant. I can't speak for Germany, but the U.S. has more forested acres today than it had 100 years ago. As of 2004, there were more than two acres of forest for every person in the U.S. One reason is because increased agricultural efficiency lets us grow more food on fewer acres, so less land is plowed up. Another reason is that long-term growth in demand for wood products, including paper, encouraged entrepreneurs to plant lots of trees and to manage forest resources for sustained profitability. Most of the what's called "pulpwood" (used for paper products) comes from the 7% of forested land that's actual tree farms. As demand for paper grows, so does the size of tree farms. (Here's one relevant source: http://www.cfact.org/site/view_article.asp?idCategory=5&idarticle=457) TW tie-in: Print stuff when it makes sense, don't when it doesn't, and stop worrying about killing trees. The more we need, the more they'll grow. Richard Richard G. Combs Senior Technical Writer Polycom, Inc. richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom 303-223-5111 ------ rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom 303-777-0436 ------