Figures I have seen indicate that approximately 20 billion catalogs are printed and distributed in the U.S. every year. That’s about 60 catalogs for each person in the U.S. If my own mail is any indication, I would say that is accurate.

It would be funny if it didn’t affect the environment so much. Computers and the Internet were supposed to take us into a paperless society, but it seems we use more paper than ever. When you consider that online sales in the U.S. were $4.5 billion in 2007, you wonder why we need so many catalogs. I am not sure we need them all but I know why they are printed. This statement by a marketing research company says it all.

Marketing Vox
“The paper catalog is still the largest revenue generator — some 50 percent of sales in both 2007 and 2008 — among all channels used by companies that sell goods to consumers and businesses from a remote location, though web sales continue to grow, a new study finds.”

I think it is safe to say that most of the catalogs printed are pretty much tossed before they are read. You would think the catalog-marketing folks would find it more cost effective to be more discerning with their distributions. Perhaps we need an opt-in list as we do with email, or maybe there is a better idea for the use for all those catalogs.

 What if we had the catalog people print catalogs on a soft paper using soy ink. That way we could recycle the paper by using it as toilet paper. They did that a hundred years ago using the regular paper, but hey were hardier people. They also used corncobs. Yeiks!

I think I am on to something here. J

Weed season just started and I must admit I am feeling the effect. It seems to me that my allergy symptoms get worse every year. My initial thought was that this was my imagination. That was until I saw a show on CBS.  

It turns out that researchers have found a connection between Global Warming and the increase of allergy suffering. As the temperature rises (even a little) weeds flourish and year after year there are more. They must be happy and horny weeds because they are certainly spreading a lot of pollen around.

Another factor is the more weeds the more weed killer that will be used. This is not a good thing for our ecological system. If just small increases in global temperature can melt ice caps and pollute the air with pollen, what can we expect in the future when temperatures rise even higher? I cringe to think about.  

Anyway, all this allergy talked got me thinking about the social economic effect of this increase. I found a report called State of World Allergy Report 2008. According to the report, worldwide asthma rates have increased 50 per cent each decade for the last 40 years. Along with this increase comes death and suffering.

And listen to this. Approximately $20 billion are spent globally each year in relation to aller ...