(Thumbnail image from greenwala.com)

It’s something people use everyday, but hardly think about, and now environmentalists are targeting it – toilet paper. Media sources are questioning how far people will go to save the environment, especially when no one is looking.

We take a look at perspectives from CBS4, KCAL, The Heritage Foundation, The Guardian, The Washington Post and FOX News.

A reporter from CBS4 reports on the impact of toilet paper on the environment.

“The demand for super-soft toilet paper, in particular, is wiping out forests. Every year, the average American uses 24 rolls of toilet paper, and 98 percent of all that toilet paper sold in the U.S. comes from trees that need to be cut down.”

A reporter from KCAL is skeptical about the extent of controlling effects on the environment. He questions singer Sheryl Crow’s suggestion on cutting down the use of toilet paper.

“She’s proposed on her Web site, that there should be a ban on how much toilet paper people can use. She suggests, 'one square per sitting,' unless, 'on those pesky occasions, where two to three could be required.' The question is, what’s next? The government forming a TP patrol to enforce the ban?”

A writer for The Heritage Foundation agrees.

“First they came for your car. Then for your cheeseburger. Now those crazy environmentalists want to control how you wipe.”

But the consequences are enormous, a scientist at the Natural Resources Defence Council told The Guardian.

"Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age. Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution."

The numbers, however, show that toilet paper has little environmental damage, says a writer from The Washington Post.

“Toilet paper is far from being the biggest threat to the world's forests: together with facial tissue, it accounts for 5 percent of the U.S. forest-products industry, according to industry figures.”

A reporter on FOX News says she doesn’t want to take recycling to the bathroom.

“Now you may not care about me, but I speak for many Americans when I say I don’t really want to be an environmentalist in the bathroom. A lot of people you know, they recycle, they do everything they can to watch the environment.  They drive fuel economic cars, but they want to use soft toilet tissue.”

Would you swap comfort for conservation?