And where we can reduce consumption, we should do that as well. More than our share Half of the world's wood is burned as fuel, mostly in the developing world. The other half is used to make things, like furniture and paper, in industrial countries. But people in the United States consume 17 percent of the world's industrial wood. Americans, on average, use three times as much wood each as people in developing countries and twice that of other industrialized nations.
Environmental groups blame industrial economies for most forest destruction.
Once trees are cut down, they follow two major paths into the industrial economy. One passes through sawmills, plywood mills, veneer or other wood panel mills, and then into building construction, shipping, manufacturing or furniture. The other path flows through pulp mills into paper, paperboard or fiberboard production. Together, these two paths account for more than 80 percent of industrial wood use in the United States. The other 20 percent includes fuelwood, wood chips and raw logs for exports.