Christmas Gifts 2010: Which Children's Book Publishers Are Destroying The Rainforest? The Best And Worst (PHOTOS)

From The Rainforest Action Network:

For Black Friday and holiday shoppers, the Rainforest Action Network put together a guide to inform consumers on which book publishers are doing their best to protect the rainforests. Use it to find out how the publishers of your favorite kids' books are doing.

For more information about which publishers are "rainforest-safe," download the full report and pocket-size shopping guide HERE. A supplementary list of "rainforest-safe" book titles can be found HERE.

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Recommended: Hachette Book Group

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Hachette Book Group has a comprehensive environmental stance and they won’t buy from controversial Indonesian suppliers or other endangered forests. Their policy provides for a tenfold increase in recycled fiber by 2012, a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and sourcing paper certified from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The Earth Book will actually be safer for the Earth.

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Hachette Book Group has a comprehensive environmental stance and they won’t buy from controversial Indonesian suppliers or other endangered forests. Their policy provides for a tenfold increase in recycled fiber by 2012, a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and sourcing paper certified from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The Earth Book will actually be safer for the Earth.

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Comments

[CMB1969]

12:31 PM on 11/29/2010

Why the heck should we be importing WOOD PULP all the way from Indonesia anyhow? Up until recent years, this wasn't an issue because our supply came largely from the piney woods region of AR, LA, and TX (and similiar areas of the South) where the stock is tree-farmed (of course that is a consequence of clear-cutting circa 1910, but we can't go back in time a century and change that...). The pulp is coming from places like Indonesia because: A. the expense of tree farming is not there (effectively, Indonesia is where southern Arkansas was a century ago...), and B. a timber or paper mill worker in the piney woods earns the "exorbitant" wage of, say, $7.25 per hour. Of course, we will continue to get that pulp from Indonesia until those forests are fully clear cut--go to downtown El Dorado, Arkansas and look at all the lovely century-old buildings in varying levels of disrepair, in a town that has been depressed for three quarters of a century, to see where the future lies.

[futbol4fun]

01:13 AM on 11/29/2010

My Republican cousin bought his son the new book "How Robbie Raccoon field stripped his M-4 in 12 Seconds". They are Republicans, so it was all pictures, no words.

[PartOfTheSolution]

12:34 PM on 11/28/2010

If publishers would support legalization of hemp fiber to produce paper, that would be the most environmentally friendly approach they could possibly take. It's a proven fact that hemp doesn't deplete the soil and since it is an annual plant, it is a totally renewable resource, which could allow man to save the forests that still remain.

[deepintheheartoftejas]

01:05 PM on 11/28/2010

Hemp paper is very expensive, compared to wood pulp. It's already legal everywhere in the world apart from the US, and it is unused for paper outside of a few vanity presses, because of the expense.

[futbol4fun]

01:09 AM on 11/29/2010

Maybe, but I tried smoking a Curious George book once and was sick for a week.

[Robco1]

10:59 AM on 11/30/2010

Hemp paper is only more expensive because it is competing with established wood-pulp manufacturers and is not grown in the U.S. Ultimately it would probably prove to be cheaper to produce than wood pulp paper because less acreage is needed and the plant is easy to grow.

[markb68]

03:02 AM on 11/28/2010

Research shows as many as 32 million American adults have trouble reading and many more can't be bothered to sit through 500 page books, I think the short picture book shouldn't just be for children, but for adults who don't have the time to read long books. How many dog eared books are there at page 30 never to be opened again? So I have written and published a children's picture book which is enjoyable for adults and older people as well. It's called 'Jacob and Sorrel a story of two caterpillars' and I vote it as a picture book of the year :)

[freddychef]

02:14 AM on 11/28/2010

once again , the house of mouse is displaying signs of evil.

[CMB1969]

12:17 PM on 11/29/2010

Disney is a ruthless corporate empire--I've known people who have worked at Disney World and, from their stories, Wal Mart almost sounds like a beneficent employer.

[jnowlin]

10:41 PM on 11/27/2010

thanks huffpost for pointing out the publishers who are doing their share to help protect the environment and calling out those who are not! i will definitely consider this when buying books for myself and others in the future.

[she343]

01:59 PM on 11/27/2010

Or- the publishers could follow William McDonough and use a polymer (infinitely recycl.-to other books- not down cycled) and leave the trees to sequester carbon. produce 02, create habitats,prevent soil erosion,create habitat etc.............and use hemp for other things!

[Robco1]

04:24 PM on 11/30/2010

Cradle-to-Cradle is one of my favorite books, and a great eye-opener on how we can achieve a sustainable society. If you haven't read it yet you may also want to check out The Natural Step for Business, by Brian Natrass and Mary Altomare.

My problems with the polymer solution is that I would need assurance that it was totally non-toxic, and that it still comes from a carbon-intensive petroleum drilling and refining process. McDonough stated in the book that the Yupo (I think it was Yupo?) they used was not a perfect "technical nutrient" but was the best example in existence at the time.

[she343]

04:32 PM on 11/30/2010

Hi, Glad to hear from another who looks for answers. Haven't read the book you suggested but will look for it. Thanks for the suggestion

[steph1238]

12:16 PM on 11/27/2010

The point of this article was not the books listed and their literary quality, but the environmental impact of their publishers! Go to the "Book" section if you'd like to find "Incredible Children's Books"

[Norma Cluster]

11:03 AM on 11/27/2010

Thanks I'll keep these rec's in mind when I buy books for my grandson.

[holyghostie]

10:07 AM on 11/27/2010

Its a shame that one of the last few American manufacturing success stories the BOOK PRINTER has been under assault by Chinese printers who the Chinese govt has asked to use Chinese and Asian sources for paper. (Instead of European) The asian foresters could care less about environmental impact. Companies like Newscorp look the other way to get the lowest unit price on their books.

I'm afraid with the Chinese Printers and the Chinese manufactured EREADERS, a whole sector of American publishing and printing professionals are going to be out of jobs in the next decade.

[Anne Mccormick]

11:13 PM on 11/26/2010

so, I went to the book store to buy some books to read to my two year old nephew. i read through all the ones listed above and, for the most part, they were boring. some of them i couldn't get past the few two or three pages. the only ones I wanted to read again are "The Grinch who stole Christmas" and the "Disney" ones. so guess what i bought.

[Freesia2]

12:54 AM on 11/27/2010

The Grinch. One of the best children's books ever. I'm in my 40s and I still love the Grinch.

[WoodyCPM]

01:40 AM on 11/29/2010

50 years ago I read it over and over and over again.

[Rachel O]

04:08 AM on 11/28/2010

Contentiousness isn't an attractive quality, you know.

[isis]

11:09 PM on 11/26/2010

Good to know! My grandson's like books.

[LisaCACO]

10:26 PM on 11/26/2010

well, here's another reason to avoid disney publishing...

[Bedo]

08:37 PM on 11/26/2010

"The Adventures of Rodeo Duck". PublishAmerica

[proggirl]

04:27 PM on 11/26/2010

slightly OT, but worth noting. I've made paper and taught paper making. Trees are the LEAST efficient plant to use for paper making! The waste to cellulose ratio is absurd, and it's cellulose that binds the fibers and makes paper, well, paper.
If we were serious about the environmental impact of paper making, we'd switch to a rapidly renewing, high cellulose plant. Hemp would work (no, I'm not a pot smoker, not for decades) and there are others. This is another industry that needs to be revisited for environmental impact and cost effectiveness.

[mp146]

05:09 PM on 11/26/2010

Exactly, hemp is renewable, easy and is only illegal because its serves the timber, chemical etc industry. Industrial hemp is different from marijuana.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080122004030AAnL7R0

[thebigbike]

05:43 PM on 11/26/2010

Fer cryin out loud even GEORGE Frikken WASHINGTON grew hemp!

[MG Metiva]

08:28 PM on 11/26/2010

Hemp...... Puff! Much better for the enviroment and pot-smokers alike.

[PartOfTheSolution]

12:41 PM on 11/28/2010

Please don't make inaccurate statements and confuse the poor illiterate Americans out there. You can't get high from smoking hemp, you are not only conflating cannabis and hemp, but perpetuating the myth of the ignor@nt st0ner.

[Robco1]

11:07 AM on 11/30/2010

Actually hemp is the last thing pot growers would want grown nearby. The hemp plants would cross-pollinate the drug-quality marijuana and render it useless as anything but fiber.

Hemp is a very useful and sustainable fiber crop, but this is a side issue IMO. What is important related to this article is that baby and children's books are being made in a way that is destroying the world those children will inherit. That to me is the definition of stupid.