Practice What You Print

Ah, the esteemed National Geographic. Excellent photographs for collages. Always on sale by the hundreds at the Kiwanis thrift store in Ann Arbor. The only English-language magazine I found in my many travels across Asia. (At one point, I was in a random airport and had finished all my books and was starving for the printed word, and there it was: an overpriced issue of National Geographic, with an awesome cover story about Greenland.)

But one thing I've learned from Sophie, who works for Green America's Better Paper Project, is that National Geographic is not the environmental steward it purports to be. For a company that uses such an insane amount of paper, it's pretty surprising that they don't use recycled materials.

The Better Paper Project's aim is two-fold. One goal is to convince National Geographic to use recycled paper. The other goal is to stop National Geographic from polluting a river in Maine, which receives toxic run-off from their printing presses. As someone who has done a little bit of activism work in the past, sometimes success can be hard to quantify. That's what is so great about the Better Paper Project: their goals are concrete and solid and, best of all, attainable. Below is a more detailed description of their work, and I definitely encourage you all to read it and spread the word. Everyone knows National Geographic and I promise it makes good cocktail conversation.

National Geographic's mission is to "inspire people to care about the planet," however, their printing practices destroy forests and pollute rivers. In fact, every day over 2,000 trees are cut down to print National Geographic Magazine!

As a coalition, we demand that National Geographic "Practice What It Prints" by switching to environmentally-friendly recycled paper. We also ask that National Geographic partner with their paper mill to clean up the Androscoggin River in Maine, which is dangerously polluted due to toxic emissions from this paper mill.

National Geographic has been a partner to pollution; now is the time for National Geographic to be a partner in the solution. Join us in demanding that National Geographic live up to its own mission to care about our planet.