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E-reading's net benefits for the climate
Using an e-reader in place of printed materials certainly is not the most important change we can make to reduce climate change. Preserving rainforests from being cleared for agriculture and development would be even better. Switching to e-books really does produce a net benefit for the climate, though. More important, it spurs us to think about how we need to change almost everything we do to achieve sustainability.
E-books take us in the right direction because the technology has the potential to be much less damaging to the climate than printed materials. Already the e-ink systems used in many e-readers is very energy efficient because page displays don’t use power once they’re initially composed. Recharging them from solar power reduces their impact even further.
Over time, a single reader might be used to read hundreds of books and potentially thousands of newspapers and magazines. That usage not jonly displaces an enormous amount of paper production, which is environmentally damaging aside from its use of trees, it also eliminates the energy and chemicals used in transporting and storing the books, plus their ultimate disposal. It can be far less damaging than the processes needed to produce, use, and dispose of e-readers.
Converting to e-books is just one transition we need to make. For those of us who read a lot, it helps to remind us that we need to be making such transitions and doing it quickly if the planet is to remain a pleasantly inhabitable place.
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