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Don't quote me on this as I have no actual data to back it up, but I would assume that the eBook reader would be the most polluting solution for a few reasons.
A) Most books today contains recycled papers and the process is usually done in 'industrialized' country where environmental laws are strict since the industry once abused their manufacturing process (at least where I live). Also, unless you decide to burn your books, your carbon foot print should be positive as the threes used up CO2 in the air while growing and the book will be far more stable to hold it than the same three rotting or burning in a forest. Like it or not, responsible three harvesting is necessary for the environment.
As for the eBook readers, they use tons of more armful chemicals to create those O-so-helpful transistors and other electronic/plastic parts. A good order more of them. Added to the fact that the majority of the electronics these days comes from China an other countries where feeding the masses is still a higher priority than the protection of the environment. So planet wise, paper book is probably better.
B) Paper books have an expected lifespan of a what? ~50-100 years. Can you say the same for your reader? I'm pretty confident that in 5 years, the majority of us will have either upgraded our readers for a faster, bigger and/or color model, or simply bought another one because ours will have broken down. Once again, paper seems better to me.
This said, I think the eReaders will start to really pickup once a company like Iliad, can get their price down to a more reasonable level. Their size and the fact that you can annotate is the key factor for the medium to gain momentum in the University and the work place, where electronic documents are common and (DMR) free. I see so many electronic documents being printed everyday for the soul reason that the reader don't want to read them on their computer. The book industries is only a small fraction of all printed material and I find it odd that they should be the one to support the development of the e-ink technology.
Seb
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