A new debate has come to air about the climate and many people have something to say about it. Company Charmin Ultra soft is only one of many popular tissue companies that received an F on their yearly reports. Charmin has gotten the most attention with this failing report because they have destroyed an ancient Forrest in Canada!!

Reporter Sam Wolfson from ‘The Guardian’ gives us insight on what exactly is going on in Canada. “The boreal forest covers almost 60% of Canada and is home to 600 indigenous communities…..About 28m acres of Canadian boreal forest have been cut down since 1996, an area the size of Pennsylvania. Virgin pulp, the key ingredient in toilet paper, accounted for 23% of Canada’s forest product exports.” How is this affecting the climate, ” Its huge size means it can absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the equivalent to the annual emissions of 24m cars each year.” This forest severely helps with reducing greenhouse gas emissions but now it is being chopped down by leading tissue companies so they can make their products. Who is the major supporter of Charmin, “But America’s heavy use of toilet paper – particularly the pillowy soft kind – is worsening climate change and taking “a dramatic and irreversible toll” on forests, especially the Canadian boreal forest…Americans are particularly to blame for this crisis. They make up just over 4% of the world’s population, yet account for more than 20% of global tissue consumption. The average four-person household in the US uses over 100lb of toilet paper a year.” We are the problem.

Now that we know the situation, thanks to Sam Wolfson we can finally think about what we are going to do about this. I took the time to go around Westside High School to take a little survey. I asked 21 students and teachers if they used Charmin….the results. 1:3 people said yes, that means 7 out of the 21 people are victims to Charmin and supporters of the destruction to the boreal forest. Two of my surveyors had something to say about this scandal. Mr. Ondruch a pre-Calculus and College algebra teacher informed me that he just bought Charmin from Costco yesterday when he went shopping. ” Sometimes not knowing is better. But I do like to be informed, I can’t change the fact that I just bought Charmin at the store but now I will know for the next time I go to pick out my toilet paper.” Natalia Suaste a junior at Westside says, ” my mom always buys Charmin, I can’t believe they are ruining our planet just for profits. Now I want to go home and tell my mom that we need to stop buying this product!”

Local Franchise Goldfish Swim school has recently come out that they are boycotting Charmin toilet paper. What does this have to do with Westside? Five Westside Students work at Goldfish Swim School of South Dairy Ashford. Karen Garcia, Amy Garcia, Frank Gibbons, Emma Maxcy, and Thomas Dakins. Front Desk worker Emma Maxcy has strong feelings about the decision to boycott. “We are running extremely low on toilet paper, now that we do not use Charmin we have to use an off brand that is not as efficient. It is lower quality and comes in smaller portions. Our managers having to go to the store to buy more toilet paper so we can please our customers.”

This new discovery has affected many but for today we know how students at Westside High school are feeling. Do not cut down ancient trees, we will use sandy toilet paper!