How Green is your reader?
After reading several popular press articles about digital readers it appears that the industry itself is very slow to develop. The biggest issue appears to be the price of the devices and the price of the content. Prices will come down as the market develops; but why not help give it a push?
When Toyota first released the prius many American car manufactures dismissed the automobile based on pricing. The car cost more, and the difference in gas mileage did not justify the cost. Instead American companies taunted low interest rates and purchase prices and were able to show that one would actually save money purchasing a less efficient cheaper automobile. The American car companies did not seem to take into account the green consumers. To them it was not about price it was about environmental impact. These customers were willing to pay more for something they valued.
Regardless of which e-reader you own think about how green it is. I currently have about 150 books on my reader, (at a good 200 pages or more each). I read about 4 to 6 books a week. How many trees would go into those books in my lifetime if they were paper? How much fuel would be used to transport those books to the store? How much fuel would I use traveling back and forth to stores and libraries? How many classic books would have to be reproduced if I bought them at the store instead of getting them here for free,(according to sales of classics at Barnes and Noble; Quite a few)? Last of all how much waste does it produce when people dispose of books? Now multiply those numbers by the millions of people who read regularly around the world.
I am not suggesting that the entire paper publishing industry should be replaced because it is environmentally unfriendly. That would make print unaivalable to many people around the world. What I am suggesting is awareness or marketing of the green effect of digital media. I have noticed that a large percentage of environmentaly consious people are; well for the most part well read people. I have noticed vary little "green" advertising from the digital reader industry; especially from Sony and Amazon which seem to be the two most popular. I am suggesting that awareness of the green effect may foster a lot of support from a section of the population that reads regularly and does not make every decision based on price. Such support may help support a struggling industry through a difficult time and bennefit everyone in the future.
Send an e-mail to your favorite e-reader manufacture with such a suggestion. Its also one more topic of discussion you can use when your trying to explain to someone why you spent $300 or more on such a device and they respond with " thats all it does."
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