Did You Know...

I read this on my friend Beth's blog the other day, and you can ask anyone - I have not shut up about it since. I just think its a need to know, so I have copied this from her blog. Thanks for keeping the masses informed Beth! (Hong Kong 08)

The other day Brad (another foreigner who lives in YiChang) went to lunch with one of his 4,000 students and noticed that the kid pulled out chopsticks out of his bag. They said "Greenpeace" on them and when Brad asked about it, the student told Brad that he carries them so not to waste disposable chopsticks. Each time we eat at a restaurant, 9 out of 10 times we use disposable chopsticks. We have all pondered the problem this could cause, but it was not until the student said something about it that we looked at it a little closer. After Googling, Beth found this from the Washington Post

"China now produces and discards more than 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks every year, cutting down as many as 25 million trees in the process, according to government statistics. Another 15 billion pairs are exported to Japan, South Korea and other countries. At the current rate of timber use, environmentalists warn, China will consume its remaining forests in about a decade."