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With all the pressures placed upon forests for the natural resources they contain, some creative entrepreneurs envisioned a crowdfunding model to protect and sustain them. At Wisconsin's Driftless Farm, members pay an annual contribution in exchange for the right to enjoy many of the experiences and products the forest has to offer.
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No matter how well we recycle, there will always be the need for virgin fiber in the paper industry. Both trees and non-wood fibers are cultivated for paper making around the world. The United States paper industry is structured almost entirely around wood as the source of fiber. This has resulted in the decimation of our old growth forests. Even today, old growth forests continue to be clear cut to make paper.
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Algae is the cheapest, highest yielding feedstock for biofuels and biomass for energy. It accumulates waste toxins, grows from polluting waste, does not require conversion of food crops to energy, does not lead to deforestation, and voraciously consumes carbon dioxide. Algae can produce lipid oils for biodiesel, carbohydrates necessary for ethanol, generate hydrogen, generate methane for electrical generation, be used as fertilizer, animal feed, and co-firing in coal electrical plants. Best of all, the energy produced by algae products is carbon neutral as the algae biomass is produced from CO2 in the atmosphere present today.
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The tropical rainforest tree Copaifera langsdorffii is known as the "diesel tree" or "kerosene tree". It produces a large amount of terpene hydrocarbons in its wood and leaves. One tree can produce 30 to 40 liters of hydrocarbons per year. The oil is collected by tree tapping much like rubber trees, but instead of rubbery latex, it gives up a natural biodiesel.
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The use of trees to produce paper has increased greatly over the last hundred years. This has placed great demands on the world’s available forest resources and it is now widely recognized that alternatives must be found. Recycling has been embraced in many countries as one way to reduce the amount of deforestation by the re-use of paper.
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