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Plant a tree

If your environmental consciousness has been awakened to the point that you get an uneasy feeling as you sit in the shade of some grand tree reading a book printed on what you are now keenly aware is the remains of one of that tree’s brethren, a U.S.-based eco-business is offering to lighten the guilt load by planting trees in developing countries on your behalf.

For the price of $1(U.S.) per book, Eco-Libris will pay its planting partners – organizations such as Sustainable Harvest International or the Alliance for International Reforestation, which operate in Central America, or Ripple Africa, which is based in Malawi – to plant trees to replace those used to create your books. Eco-Libris aims to plant half a million trees by the end of 2008.

The company has noble goals, including, it would seem, helping to put itself out of business someday.

We would like to see more (and eventually all) books printed in an environmental friendly manner on recycled paper. If virgin paper is being used, then it should only be from certified forests. You can help make this happen by writing publishers and encouraging them to do the right thing.