This article is a bit too narrow in its focus. All it talks about is the iPad and carbon footprint. It doesn't discuss other ebook readers, or other environmental factors.
For example, one organization did an analysis a few years ago of the Kindle's environmental impact (
http://cleantech.com/news/4867/clean...-positive-envi ). They found that after the first year of use, a Kindle saves approximately 168kg of carbon dioxide emissions. So roughly speaking, the Kindle itself is equal to about 15 paper books and the iPad equal to 30 -- and that's only for reading purposes.
There's also the question of other environmental impact. Another study (
http://www.ecolibris.net/book_industry_footprint.asp) from 2008 pointed out that in the US alone, the book industry chewed through 1.5 billion metric tons of paper; that most of this paper is from virgin and other non-sustainable forests; that in 2006, nearly 1
billion books were printed but unsold.
One thing to keep in mind about these devices -- and a lot of others, like cars -- is that the manufacturing itself constitutes most of its carbon footprint. For example:
So don't buy it if you don't need it.
And when you don't need it, try to make sure someone else uses it after you're done with it.
Ebooks aren't a free lunch in terms of environmental impact. However environmentally ebooks are a big win in general, and especially for eInk, which uses fewer materials and less power.