Canada's boreal forests—a vast, primeval landscape that's home to wolves, lynx, caribou and dozens of other mammals and birds—are increasingly at risk of being clearcut and carted away to become paper and tissue products. Which means you could be wiping your nose, mouth, or other parts with old-growth trees.

The boreal forest is also vitally important in staving off global warming, because its soil and ground cover contain huge reserves of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. (In other words, destroy the forest and you release all that CO2 into the atmosphere.)

But it's not too late to save the forests, and you can help. The folks at the Natural Resources Defense Council have put out a great guide to shopping for paper towels, napkins, toilet paper, and tissues, showing you, brand-by-brand, just how green (or not) the products in your shopping cart are.

The bottom line? The brands most people can name fare worst: Kleenex, Scott, and Cottonelle, all made by mega-corporation Kimberley-Clark, contain exactly zero percent recycled material and use the worst type of bleaching process. But take heart: there are dozens of brands—including Seventh Generation, Planet, and Marcal—that can help you save the planet every time you sneeze.

Photo credit: J Henry Fair, www.nrdc.org