Sustainable North

From the Washington Post, Sunday, September 21, 2008:

Bamboo seems like an environmentalist’s dream come true. It’s a self-regenerating plant that grows so fast (without pesticides and with little water) that it’s considered a weed, and it can be used to make products from furniture to coffee filters.

But bamboo, like most things marketed as “green” these days, isn’t perfect. First of all, much of it comes from Asia, so the carbon footprint of shipping it here is not insignificant. And though bamboo absorbs carbon, there is concern that, especially in China, demand for bamboo is leading to the clear-cutting of old-growth forests.

Click here to read the whole article.