"Couldn't most of the problem be solved by switching to hemp as a paper source?"

Yes. But the war against hemp STARTED when William Randolph Hurst wanted to protect the value of his miles of timber (there is apparently more money in paper than there is in lumber). So he found a negative facet of hemp production that he could sell to the Religious Right and other seriously controlling parties, and had all of hemp outlawed, for any reason.

John D. Rockefeller did the same thing with alcohol. He didn't give a fig about people consuming alcohol. But he started a company called Standard Oil. Henry Ford's automobiles came off the assembly line as dual-fuel vehicles, using gasoline and alcohol. In the city where gasoline was available, the operators used that; when they were traveling out in the country, they would just stop at a farm and buy a few gallons of the farmer's homemade alcohol, make a small adjustment in the car, and tootle off burning alcohol. Rockefeller used the temperance movement (and about $4.5 million) to promote Prohibition just so he could corner the market on fuel.

Overwhelming greed strikes again! And has been used as a role model ever since.

Sue