Do recycle your Wildcat

I am writing in response to Kevin Durkin's March 7 letter urging UA students to throw away their Daily Wildcats, rather than recycle them. Your firm stance, probably stemming from your business background, should not be applied to the paper industry.

You wrote that 87 percent of the trees used for making paper are planted ahead of time. But, when these trees are cut down, they are probably smaller than the older trees comprised in the remaining 13 percent. Remember, the length of time needed for a tree to grow to maturity is typically longer than the span of a man's life. The bulk of the paper produced probably comes from the 13 percent of trees not planted ahead of time because they yield a greater amount of pulp compared to the younger trees from the 87 percent segment. More importantly, the saplings planted to replace harvested trees cannot re-create the environment that existed before logging. Nor can they convert carbon dioxide to oxygen or prevent soil erosion at the same rate as mature trees.

You also mentioned that recycling newspaper "requires an expensive chemical process that causes a great deal of toxic waste." This too is inaccurate. Recycling paper uses 60 percent less energy than manufacturing paper from virgin timber, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Moreover, the chemicals used in this process, hydrogen peroxide and chlorine dioxide, are commonly used chemicals. Hydrogen peroxide is "one of the most versatile and environmentally compatible oxidizing agents," according to FMC. Chemicals and chlorine dioxide "poses no significant adverse risk to human health," according to Sterling Pulp Chemicals.

I also want you to consider this: Logging and manufacturing paper from trees also creates air and water pollution. Moreover, regular paper also requires chemical agents and according to the Mead Company, one of the largest pulp producers in the world, "recycling produces fewer pollutants than conventional pulping and bleaching processes."

Recognize the need to use recovered paper, not because of the supply/demand curves, but because recycling reduces pollutants, maintains biological systems and more importantly prevents older trees from being cut down, which reduces the amount of excess carbon dioxide produced when their vegetation is left to decompose.

Steven Hajdu
physiology and classics senior

Future students more important than current

I agree that the UA is displaying a lack of importance towards its current students, when it comes to UA's financial and construction planning. I loved this university when I came as a freshman three years ago, and now I can't even stand to be on it. The construction and lack of parking give me headaches. All I want to do is go to class, but the tearing up of the campus makes it harder and harder for me to find a spot and GET to class.

Instead of carefully planning to wisely spend money and keep the university's appeal during the construction, it appears as if they were trying to put a rush order on things for future students.

It was not necessary to sign a stack of binding construction contracts and rip the very beauty of the campus apart, only to be faced now with financial hard times, which are not all due to state cutbacks. Students are getting the butt end of the deal by having classes cut, lack of space to park once they get to the campus, and after it all, still a pending tuition hike. The UA was once a place I would recommend to any and everyone, but not now!

Now it seems as if there is no end in sight for their planning rationale. Why now, why not slowly during the year and more aggressively over the summer? Their timing is incredibly off as to what is best for the students. After all, we are the ones here now, not the class of 2026.

Jessica Will
regional development junior

N.C. Winters talented cartoonist

In response to Mr. Bartel: I happen to think N.C. Winters' comics on airport security are very entertaining. Just because he is addressing the same subject as an HBO special does not mean he is plagiarizing. Comedians and cartoonists for hundreds of years have reflected on the ills and trials of their societies. I am sure that George Carlin has done an act on the same subject as someone before him, but that doesn't mean he stole that act from that person.

If you have been to an airport since Sept. 11, then you would know that the security is a very serious issue right now. With spring break and basketball tournaments, many students will be flying and will sympathize with the humor found in "Voice of Doom." Mr. Winters is a very talented artist and may someday be one of the great comedians. There is no merit in writing a negative article with the sole purpose of slander.

Alicia Lindner
music education junior