This is What Deforestation Actually Looks Like

Posted on 14 Jan 2025

Introduction

No Flora, no Fauna, no natural habitats for the birds, bees, and bugs, nor for the animals large or small. The trees are gone, their CO2 store released into the atmosphere, adding to global warming. All as a result of the increasing demand for paper / board for e-commerce and to replace plastic.

The Environmental Carnage of Paper Production

Worldwide, over 3 billion trees a year are ‘harvested’ (destroyed) for paper pulp. It is estimated this releases some 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere. In addition, paper production is highly energy intensive, consuming circa 4% of the world’s total energy usage. Surprisingly, it takes 54,000 litres of water to produce 1 tonne of paper, that’s 10 litres of water to produce just 1 A4 sheet. Up to 3000 chemicals are used to produce the different types of paper. Many of these chemicals are highly toxic such as sulphuric, resin, and fatty acids, along with other toxic chlorinated compounds. The industry tells us that the resultant contaminated water is cleaned and reused, yet toxic sludge effluent discharges into local water courses are not uncommon, due to spills and ‘dumping’. The consequences are that the paper industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world, due to these hazardous chemical compounds included in the wastewater (Science Direct Report - 2022). These industry discharges are toxic to aquatic life including fish and aquatic flora and fauna. PFAS have also been detected in discharges from US paper mills.

The trees predominantly grown for paper pulp are eucalyptus, spruce and pine. These are invariably non-native species with little biodiversity unable to sustain native wildlife. As a consequence, in many locations they produce a ‘green desert’. As these Monoculture forests consist of trees chosen for their speed of growth and high sap content, they lack the rich eco systems of natural forests, this leads to soil degradation. It is for this reason artificial fertilizers are needed to promote growth. These, along with herbicides and insecticides are used to fight disease and insect attacks. The run off from these forests then enters the surrounding waterways with damaging effects as they promote microalgae growths, transforming clear fresh water into a dirty green mess (IURN Report Jan 2025).  

In summary, every stage of paper manufacturing from Monoculture forests to effluent discharge is environmentally damaging. It could be argued just how environmentally damaging is a matter of degree, but the facts are inescapable and there are numerous peer reviewed reports that support the information provided.

In addition, Greenhouse Gas Environment from Paper Manufacture

Manufacturing paper products produces 3.5 times more greenhouse gas emissions than plastic (Google Emmerson) For every 2 trees ‘harvested’ 1 tonne of CO2 is released into the atmosphere. It takes 12-15 years for the replacement sapling planted to replace the CO2 due to the lower CO2 absorption rate of immature trees. Thus, both the tree felling and the paper manufacturing process add to climate change. To give some context to the energy used. The UK consumes some 12.5 million tonnes of paper / board per year. The energy to produce 1 tonne of paper / board is equivalent to driving 5000 miles in a family saloon car. That’s equivalent to 62.5 billion miles of energy used just for the UK’s 12.5 million trees. Now multiply the 5000 miles by the 3 billion trees destroyed every year worldwide!! It should be added that paper and board in landfill also produce methane which adds to the paper industries greenhouse gas emissions.

Forest Fires & Deforestation

Fires in Monoculture forests are an ever-increasing hazard. Locations as far apart as Chile, China, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Portugal, etc. are plagued with Monoculture Forest fires (Google). As these forests are planted with trees, deliberately chosen for the high sap content, when these fires occur, they are virtually impossible to control as the trees ‘explode’ and sparks fly everywhere. The Portuguese call them ‘petrol trees’ and in 2024, I saw firsthand the devastation caused by Monoculture Forest fires. We saw burned out homes, and villages being evacuated. 3 Fire fighters were caught by the blaze and burnt to death in their car! In 2017, some 8% of the Portuguese land area was lost to fires and over 100 people died. This deforestation due to Monoculture Forest fires hardly ever gets mentioned in the media or by the industry. However, such is the deforestation in countries like Finland, (once the so called ‘Nation Forest of Europe’) that its forests are no longer carbon absorbers but carbon emitters.  

The paper industry will no doubt claim that European forests are growing. They will not mention the millions of extra trees that are being planted are for carbon offset, nor the increasing paper pulp imports from Brazil and Chile, or even that the trees being planted by the industry are invasive species which destroy local habitats, diversity, soils, water and animal habitats.

Conclusions

Every time a company substitutes plastic packaging for paper, they add to all of these environmental problems. Unfortunately, there is no space here to focus on the extra waste they generate, the extra transport needed or indeed the damage to the health of those living in proximity to paper mills due to airborne Sulphur and nitrogen oxides (Google Earth Justice).

We all accept the use of plastics has its problems. However, the majority of these are not difficult to rectify, we simply need to first ban all waste exports, then invest more into the collection, separation, and recycling of plastic. Meanwhile we should introduce heavy penalties for those companies and people who fail to dispose of plastics responsibly. However, it can be agreed that the problems with plastic are less harmful and potentially easier to solve than those facing the paper / board industry.  

As ever, I welcome your views on any of the items raised and would welcome you joining me on LinkedIn for more regular contact.

Twigg Times

#DontHatePlastic