The latest twist in the effort by pharma giants to save the world's forests has come in a letter sent in late April by the Council for Economic Education to a special committee of the European Parliament.Seeking aid for developing countries, the letter said, the pharmaceutical industry cannot develop new drugs and many existing ones without the plants and trees from which they're made. As a result, companies shipping the bulk of their goods to the EU, which is a very large exporter, are trying to reduce their carbon emissions. This may seem like splitting hairs. But at the EU level, a debate on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by focusing on the manufacturing and shipping of chemicals is complicated by the long shipping routes used by pharmaceutical companies.