Quote:
Originally Posted by carpetmojo
I am a bit of an environmentalist, admittedly, but I should think the construction, production, distribution, decommissioning and use of ereaders, does far more harm to the planet than making paper/phys books - especially if the timber comes from "sustainable"/replanted forests.
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Not so much.
• One Kindle has the carbon footprint of approximately 20 books
• As of 2008, the book industry used 1.5 million tons of paper
• Most of that was from virgin forests
• In 2007, only 13% of book production was from recycled paper
• More than 1
billion books were unsold in 2006
• About 2/3 of the book industry's carbon footprint is from cutting down forests
Ebooks are not free rides, but on the balance it seems to me that it's a greener option than paper books.