Last year I bought three cheap notebooks from a dollar store.

The only thing I was thinking about at the time was how much I needed those notebooks. I purchased three matching folders as well. Since I was a child, notebooks, note pads, loose-leaf paper, pens, pencils, and markers have excited me. So in that instance it didn’t matter to me that they were cheap notebooks because I was only aligned with my immediate desire at the time: I wanted those notebooks. In my defense, I usually buy only recycled, acid-free, and ideally post-consumer waste paper, but sometimes when I really want something, my (so-called) principles get pushed aside.

Pfft.

Meanwhile, I’ve been keeping up with Greenpeace’s campaign to save the Sumatran tiger in Indonesia. There are only 400 left. One of the prime perpetrators of tiger habitat destruction is a company called Asia Pulp & Paper. My heart has been heavy thinking about the last of the Sumatran tigers, so yesterday when I took out the notebook I bought from the dollar store last year and saw APP on the cover, I felt sick.

I thought, one person’s purchasing power does make a difference. I am responsible for the Sumatran tiger. And so are you. There is so much in the world competing for our attention, and it saddens me to think this beautiful creature will quietly disappear like a fading blip on a radar.

And then there will be another story that grabs our attention…

So if you’d like to help, you can start by signing this petition about APP’s tissue products (yes, Sumatran tigers may go extinct so we can wipe our asses). Then you might consider eschewing all APP paper products.

I don’t know if our humble actions will help this magnificent creature survive, but the least we can do is try.

https://secure3.convio.net/gpeace/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=921