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Originally Posted by Robertb
Dear All:
IF everything remained as now and there were no external pressures to change, we could debate the viability of eBook Readers forever despite that sales are climbing thru the roof. Lets ignore that printed books and audio books went way down last year and that eBooks experienced a 171% increase.
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given the low sales numbers that growth rate is based upon, the number is not all that significant just yet. And also it does not imply that the increase has anything to do with eink displays which is the topic for the thread. So, while an interesting and positive observation, it is not, in itself near as important as is increasing the number of reading options for people as opposed to "company store" readers and formats. Still it is a nice positive for those of us who have been reading ebooks long before many even knew that they were.
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All things are NOT going to stay the same. They cannot. There is a Limit to Growth for printed books. Old books, particularly paperbacks and newspapers and magazines ALL are clogging up the landfill. That is NOT going to continue forever without sharp penalties and cost to the consumer. eBooks do NOT cause landfill problems.
Printing of books is a huge drain on power and eBooks are not. Printed books mean trees must be harvested.
The big kicker though is what is known as Toxic Paper-Making Bi-Products. Paper Mill Sludge is decimating our rivers, lakes, and streams. Paper Sludge, caused by the bleaching of paper by chemicals to make it white, contains 30 carcinogens and is pure acid and Canada did a major study on the problem last year and found there is no way to effectively alleviate the risk. Like a time-bomb, Paper Mill Sludge Regulation is going to drive many paper mills out of business.
Like it or not... printed books are going away and the electronic reader is the vehicle people think will eventually win out. WHY?? Because you can store 4,000 books on a 16GB SD card and have them forever. Newspapers, magazines, books... all saved, all categorized by date, all available as a resource long after they are popular.
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That is a potentially specious comment. There has been no real info as to the environmental footprint of ereading devices over printed books. A fair amount of pbooks come from recycled paper and also, trees are a very easily renewed resource. Though hemp and bamboo, especially hemp (far more parasite, disease and weather resistant not to mention far more durable), are more quickly and easily renewed sources of raw materials to make paper. I am sure you are unaware that the original motivation for making cannabis "illegal" was to include ALL hemp in the US because Hearst had vast investments in the cotton and timber industry to supply paper for his publishing empire. It had little to nothing to do with the drug. And hemp used for rope and paper is a far cousin of the hemp which is used as a medication.
And part of the problem with pollution due to print industry is the books are printed in countries which have very lax environmental restrictions. In fact most devices are also produced in the same countries. So, one really fast way to fix that is to actually enforce publishes to import books or devices from countries which have the same standards demanded of our own industries. Cheap labor is not the only reason production has been moved outside the US or other countries with fairly rigid environmental laws.
Did the Canadian report deal with paper production within Canada or where the majority of books are actually printed? No matter what it's right on that paper production is not that great. But remember neither is the production of the plastics and other components in an electronic device. It many cases the effects of a device are felt not just during production but also when they end up in the landfill.
So, device makers are not lillywhite either. It just benefits them to mention there exists a possibility of improving conditions...of course it's never mentioned if huge scale production of the devices is any better environmentally.