Absolutely eBooks are *MUCH* greener.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Falbe Publishing
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1. No paper is used to produce the copies, which includes the massive water and power usage needed for paper production and then for the printing.
2. No physical shipping is necessary, which means no gas/diesel use.
However, ebooks and their readers do all need a computer (mostly) and a reading device. Also the ebook distribution takes place on the internet (mostly) and the infrastructure of the internet uses vast amounts of power, which for the most part comes from fossil fuels.
I think that ebooks use less resources and cause less pollution than paper books. At the very least trees are not being cut down and pulped into celebrity memoirs (a great affront to Mother Nature).
I was wondering what other people thought on this subject.
Thanks.
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The real question is about
incremental costs/materials/energy required for eBooks. All the infrastructure - power plants, computers, internet, etc. - are already in place, already exist. We all have them and use them before and after eBooks about the same way. Therefore, the real questions are:
1) How much additional hardware do you use?
Well I had a Plam Zire before and replaced it with an eReader, so zero net change. I suspect most people have about the same number of gizmos as before, maybe on average bit more. The point is every person has a certain number of gizmos they use regardless of eReaders.
2) How much more energy do you use?
It should be obvious that by comparison energy used for eReaders is virtually zero. A single ride in a car to the mall or to movies consumes the energy that could power eReader for your lifetime. So additional energy used is nil.
3) How much more network bandwidth?
Again, books are so small compared to movies, music, etc. Even an average web page is loaded with graphics, Flash content, even small movies. So again additional bandwidth used for eBooks is nil.
In other words, the additional material and energy used for eReaders and eBooks is so tiny that it is virtually free. The biggest resource use is up front for an eReader. Once a device is built the actual operations is about as green as you can make anything in this world.
I won't even go into analysis of pBooks. Should be obvoius how wasteful it is. Especially as many books end up going back some place, getting destroyed or throw away.