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Are ebooks reducing our carbon footprint?
November 9, 2009 | 11:17 am
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By Robert Nagle
Sustainability expert Don Carli on ebooks:
When subjected to “cradle-to-cradle ” Lifecycle Analysis eReading is not nearly as green as many naively assume it is.
There is no question that print media could do a better job of managing the sustainability of its supply chains and waste streams, but it’s a misguided notion to assume that digital media is categorically greener. Computers, eReaders and cell phones don’t grow on trees and their spiraling requirement for energy is unsustainable.
Making a computer typically requires the mining and refining of dozens of minerals and metals including gold, silver and palladium as well as extensive use of plastics and hydrocarbon solvents. To function, digital devices require a constant flow of electrons that predominately come from the combustion of coal, and at the end of their all-too-short useful lives electronics have become the single largest stream of toxic waste created by man. Until recently there was little if any voluntary disclosure of the lifecycle “backstory” of digital media.
Sadly, print has come to be seen as a wasteful, inefficient and environmentally destructive medium, despite the fact that much of print media is based on comparatively benign and renewable materials. In addition, print has incredible potential to be a far more sustainable medium than it is today… and a truly digital medium as well. Despite its importance to business, government and society, print has been cast in the role of a dark old devil in decline. Digital media has been cast as the bright young savior on the rise.
In other news, Al Gore’s new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis (which I am enjoying btw) is not available as an ebook. (To be fair, it has a lot of cool color graphics). See also my July article about climate change and ebooks.
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Comments:
This analysis may apply to dedicated ereader devices, but it’s not fair to put the entire carbon footprint of a computer on digital publishing. He also makes no mention of the decrease in the carbon footprint because digital books don’t need to be stored or shipped.
I’m all for making cleaner computers and other electronics, but the demonizing is going both ways here.
Like so many others, Carli’s making a 1-to-1 comparison to a device that can, in fact, store hundreds to thousands of books, and largely dismissing the paper industry’s polluting qualities (they are also powered primarily by coal-fired plants)… not to mention the industrial misinformation that they are producing trees as fast as they are cutting them down.
No sale.
Here is Mr. Carli on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kzRLhNwg5E
It is very important to consider the environmental impact of computers and all the associated technology, and to make these products and their ecosystems as green as possible.
Nevertheless, paper products destroy trees, and lots of them. Even those of us who love paper-books — and want paper-books to co-exist harmoniously with ebooks — need to face that inconvenient fact.
I agree with the comments of Jon and Steve.
When Carli writes:
… I would wonder about his classifying of trees as “renewable materials.”
Solar energy is renewable; wind and water, too.
Trees can be harvested and re-planted thoughtfully, but to call them renewable — especially in light of the problems caused by massive deforestation, and the wasteful practices in much of today’s print industry — is more than a bit of a stretch.
Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks
Anyone who looks at the figures offered by the Green Press Initiative would have a hard time accepting this man’s view that paper is better than digital.
http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/
I care about being ‘green’ (even though that word is simply a marketing term not), but being ‘green’ or not is never a factor in my electronics purchases.
Agree that we need to try to be green with our electronics. Considering that much printing takes place in Asia, with non-renewed trees, and that books are then shipped around the world. I really think the analysis has to come out in favor of eBooks being environmentally sound.
Of course, we should be sensible in our energy consumption, but eBook readers are low profile compared to computers or many other electronic devices.
Rob Preece
Publisher