- Stop purchasing virgin fiber from endangered forests including the North American Boreal forest
- Drastically increase the amount of recycled fiber, in all products, including Kleenex brand toilet paper, facial tissue and napkins
- Only buy virgin fiber from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) eco-certified forests. The FSC is the only guarantee that forests are managed sustainably.
VVPR info: Contact: Daniel Kessler, Greenpeace media officer, 970.690.2728
Notes: About the animator
Mark Fiore, who the Wall Street Journal recently called “the undisputed guru of the form,” creates animated political cartoons from an undisclosed location somewhere in San Francisco. His work appears regularly in a wide variety of online news web sites and is seen by millions, probably even scrillions. After a short stint at the San Jose Mercury News as their staff cartoonist creating traditional political cartoons in a terribly stifling fluorescent windowless office, Fiore happily fled the print world in 2001 to devote all of his energies to creating animated work. Mark Fiore was awarded a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and has also received an Online Journalism Award from the Online News Association and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. With two awards from the National Cartoonists Society for his work in new media under his belt, Fiore also seems to excel at writing in the third person.
About Greenpeace
Greenpeace is the leading independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful direct action and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and to promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
Background on Kleenex and Ancient Forests
1. Twenty-five million acres of ancient forest are being cleared or destroyed every year around the world. That is an area the size of a soccer field lost every two seconds. In fact, ancient forests cover only seven percent of the Earth’s entire land surface. The world’s ancient forests maintain environmental systems are essential for life on Earth. They influence weather by controlling rainfall and evaporation of water from soil. They help stabilize the world’s climate by storing large amounts of carbon that would otherwise contribute to climate change. These forests also house around two-thirds of the world’s land-based species of plants and animals. They are home to millions of forest-based communities and people who depend on them for their survival and livelihoods.
2. One of the ancient forests Kimberly-Clark continues to destroy is North America’s Boreal forest. The Boreal forest stretches across the country, from the eastern Alaskan to Labrador. The Boreal has evolved for over 10,000 years and is the largest tract of ancient forest left in North America, making the protection of the Boreal forest absolutely critical. Representing 25 percent of the world’s remaining ancient forests, North America’s Boreal forest truly is a global treasure. The thick layers of moss, soil and peat of the Boreal forest form one of the world’s largest terrestrial storehouses of carbon. This carbon storehouse plays an enormous role in fighting climate change. The Boreal forest is also home to hundreds of wide-ranging wildlife species, including moose, caribou, lynx, bear and wolves. Eagles, hawks, owls, 30 percent of North America’s songbirds and 40 percent of its waterfowl nest in the forests and wetlands. The Boreal is a diverse and awe-inspiring landscape of granite outcrops, lakes, rivers, and marshes interspersed with pine, spruce, fir and poplar forests.
