The latest milestone in the pharmaceutical industry's efforts to preserve the world's forests came from a letter sent in late April by the Council for Economic Education to a special committee of the European Parliament.The letter, which demanded assistance for developing countries, said that the pharmaceutical industry cannot produce new drugs without the plants and trees that are the basis of many current ones. As a result, companies that ship most of their goods to the European Union, a significant export market, are making an effort to reduce their carbon footprint. There may seem to be a lot of small print in this.However, by focusing on the manufacturing and distribution of chemicals, the long shipping routes followed by pharmaceutical companies muddy the waters in the debate over how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the EU level.