We all know that the so-called “paperless office” turned out…not to be. In fact, computers caused the use of more paper than ever before. There was even a paper shortage a few years back, though it may be stretching a point to tie this to paper use brought on by computers. But it looks as if the predominance of electronic media—websites, electronic newspapers, and, yes, e-books—is now doing what the “paperless office” could not, cutting down on the use of paper significantly. And this is having some unanticipated consequences. In particular, it could quite possibly cause a shortage...

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Sam Jordison on the Guardian Books Blog meditates on the eco-friendliness of e-books. He mentions a study on the Kindle that estimates a Kindle produces “roughly 168 kg” of carbon dioxide during its lifetime, whereas a single book produces about 7.46 kg—meaning that a Kindle equals about 22.5 books. So once a Kindle has kept someone from buying 23 paper books, the carbon dioxide savings begin. The author of the study also claims that "a physical book purchased by a person driving to the bookstore creates twice the emissions of a book purchased online." She also notes that...

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