Quote:
Originally Posted by =X=
 For me this is reason #2. Reason #1 is the convince of being able to carry all my books in a small device.
I tried going green and practice it when I can. But it is hard being green and not being hypocrite (this is directed to my personal feeling of me claiming to be green and directed at noone else). For instance the ink used in clothing. The electronic devices that are used to read eBooks, the wasted produced by electic plants to power our house, fast food, etc....
At least the waste produced by pBooks is much less severe than many of the other wasted in our society. Paper is 100% bio-degradable. |
While I hate to further complicate your decisions...
Yes, although paper is 100% bio-degradable, the fact is that paper production not only causes significant deforestation (not all paper is farmed, yet), but in the actual production, massive amounts of chemicals and bleaches are used in most processes. The runoff from those chemicals is simply dumped into the nearest river. So paper isn't as environmentally friendly as it may seem.
And while an e-book reader may require production of electronic components, which involves its own waste cycle, you can compare that to the fact that a reader can potentially replace hundreds, even thousands, of paper books, which would make it less net-wasteful than books.
(Of course, if you already have a device capable of reading e-books, like a cellphone, PDA, etc... you don't need to get a reader, and that much less production waste is generated...)
There are always trade-offs involved in being green (which I, as a 30+ year green advocate, know well). You don't have to be 100% green for it to count... you just do what you can, when you can, and be mindful of avoiding waste. If you measure your plusses against your minuses, and you are producing less net waste than the average American, you're doing well.