Key Points We all use raw materials of one kind or another to sustain our lives, and raw materials use is increasing as world population grows. All materials use has environmental consequences. When we seek to do the environmentally "right" thing, we must be sure that our decisions are based on a global view, systems thinking, logic as well as emotion, and a realistic outlook. Even though it means cutting trees, domestically produced wood is in many instances a more environmentally sound materials choice for Americans than concrete, plastics, metals, or other nonrenewable or imported materials.

Raw materials are an indispensable part of human life. We use them to build homes, schools, shopping centers, office buildings, highways. We make them into trucks, clothing, hiking gear, furniture, pencils. We burn them to generate heat and electricity, to fuel our thirsty cars.

In using raw materials, we have the ability to disrupt the balance of natural systems. Fortunately, we also have the ability to foresee how what we take from the environment affects its long-term health. As humans it is our responsibility to evaluate the potential impacts of the various options and make choices that are best, not just for ourselves, but for the earth as a whole.

A Growing Need

It's more important today than ever before to pay attention to the environmental impact of materials use. One reason is that new technologies have allowed us to draw from the environment in new ways, on unprecedented scales. But the overarching reason for urgent concern lies in our sheer numbers.

Central to all environmental problems today is the rapid growth of the human population. It took all of human history up until about 1800 to reach a world population of one billion. Just 130 years later a second billion had been added, in large part due to progress in agriculture and medicine. The leap from two to three billion took only 35 years; from three to four billion, 15 years; from four to five billion, only 10 years. Early in 1995, world population stood at 5.7 billion. It is likely that the world population will double in the next 70 to 100 years.

This means that each year - each minute - there are more people making demands on the world's resources than ever before.

Awareness and concern about population growth has spread substantially over the past several decades, and already the global birth rate has fallen somewhat. However, more people still are born than die - 26 per 1,000 population compared to a death rate of 9 per 1,000 in 1995. Clearly the issue of responsible use of natural resources is today more critical than ever.

Meeting the Demand

It's obvious from these figures that demand for raw materials will increase rapidly during the years ahead. How will we meet that demand?

We have two choices: we can carry on as we are and try to meet problems as they arise; or we can plan ahead. We can identify options and their associated environmental consequences and choose the best ones.

If we are to be environmentally responsible, we must make the choice to plan ahead. That doesn't mean relying on our narrow perceptions and biases to figure out what's best for our own circumstances. Rather, it means thinking about the effects of our actions on a global scale. It means looking at the whole system, not just parts - for example, thinking about how we're going to dispose of something as well as how we're going to get it in the first place. It means basing actions on rational thought as well as emotions. It means making sure our assumptions are accurate - that what we think we know is really true.

If we wish to make wise choices about materials use, we must keep these four principles of environmental responsibility - a global view, systematic and logical reasoning, rationality, and realism - at the core of our thinking.

The Role of Wood

Let's apply these four principles of responsible environmental decision-making to evaluate the role of wood in meeting human demand for raw materials.

Wood products comprise a big part of the overall picture of materials use in America. The United States annually uses roughly as much wood by weight as it does all metals, plastics, and portland cement combined! However, some environmentally concerned people are calling on our nation to preserve forest land by drastically reducing our use of domestic wood. Would such a reduction be an environmentally responsible choice?

To answer that, we must examine how we might achieve such a goal. There are four possible options. 1) We could shift our demand to other raw materials. 2) We could continue to use wood, but rely on imported rather than domestic supplies. 3) We could reduce the amount of materials we use. 4) We could recycle more of what we do use.

Responsible environmentalism means: thinking globally; looking at the whole system, not just parts; basing our decisions on reason as well as emotion; making sure that our assumptions reflect reality.

Shift to other materials. One way to reduce our use of domestic wood would be to meet the demand with other materials. Because wood makes up such a huge proportion of the raw materials we use today, this would substantially increase demand for plastics, metals, and other materials.

Such a shift may make sense if we look only at the impact on American forests. But if we look at a possible shift to other materials from a broader perspective, a different picture emerges. Consider:

	Gathering and processing any raw material produces environmental impacts. But the impacts associated with gathering and processing wood are relatively low. For instance, it generally takes much more energy to extract, transport, and convert other raw materials into usable products than it does for wood. Energy use has many environmental implications of its own, so options that increase energy use must be seriously examined.
	The United States already is a net importer of most materials that might substitute for wood. This means that when we substitute other materials for wood, we trigger a transfer of environmental impacts from our nation to the nation or nations from which we import substitute materials. Because not all countries have the environmental protection controls we have, the environmental impacts may be magnified as they are transferred. Furthermore, it's increasingly unlikely that growing world populations will be willing to continue to export vast quantities of raw materials to our country rather than preserving them for their own use.
	Of all the raw material options available today, wood stands out as one of the very few renewable resources.

Rely on imported wood. How about saving American forests by importing wood from other countries?

As with other types of raw materials, such an import strategy would, in effect, simply transfer environmental impacts to other regions of the globe. Is this ethical?

Reduce materials use. The third option is to reduce our demand for raw materials. We can certainly be wiser by being less wasteful. Before we buy anything, each of us should pause for a moment to ask, "Do I really need this?" Ongoing improvements in technology that allow us to do more with less also will help reduce materials use.

As important as efforts to reduce consumption are, we need to recognize that the rapidly growing population is likely to increase rather than decrease raw material demand. Imagine cutting your consumption in half: living in a space half the size of what you have now, shopping in a supermarket with only half the shelf space, driving half the distance you're used to, having only half as many shoes and shirts and other items of clothing. Even if every U.S. citizen were to do all that, overall global demand would still increase due to the population growth projected for the next century and the increased demand anticipated as others around the world seek a standard of living closer to ours.

Recycle. The final possibility for reducing domestic wood use is to increase our recycling efforts. This option does hold great promise for reducing demand for raw materials. As responsible stewards, it is critical that we pursue recycling as vigorously as we can. However, we also must remember that paper fibers and many other materials degrade somewhat each time they are recycled. This means that new materials must continually be added to the mix, ensuring continuing demand for raw materials. And, once again, because of our growing population, savings accrued from recycling are likely to be more than offset by the anticipated leap in demand.

The United States annually uses roughly as much wood by weight as it does all metals, plastics, and portland cement combined.

Forest Facts and Figures About one-third of the United States - some 737 million acres - is forested land. The wilderness system in the United States includes 103 million acres, most of which is forested. Today more than one of every eight forested acres in the United States is designated as wilderness where no commercial activity of any kind is allowed. More than 35 million of these acres are highly productive forest land that would support periodic timber harvest. Of the 486 million acres of commercial forest land in the United States in 1995, 28 percent is owned by federal, state, or local government; 57 percent is held by individual private land owners; and 15 percent is owned by the forest products industry. For every 100 feet of wood harvested... new growth added 131 cubic feet. Within the commercial forests (the two-thirds of U.S. forest land on which periodic harvesting is allowed), significantly more wood is added each year than is harvested. Net growth has exceeded harvest nationwide in every year since the mid-1930s. In 1993, for every 100 cubic feet of wood harvested, new growth added 131 cubic feet.

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