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Hmmm!
Yes! we work towards the future. Yes! paper books will someday be today's horse and buggy. Yes! the energy we show in our evangelism is positive. But we should not go near the fringes of extremism.
Forgive me for what I'm about to say for I have to be objective; as I'm about to play devil's advocate.
First off: The derogatory term dead trees.
How ever we are empassionned by the ebook's versatility, using a naturally replenished form of material is a good thing. It is the way trees are framed in our consumption wheel that is a shame; not the fact of using the trees. If we start thinking in that way, we have to think about all other destructing forms of nature consumption; mining, power use, food, transport and all others. Trees and vegetation are an extension of solar power, the only acceptably true free energy. In this case the part of the equation most critical is that solar power is mixed with a high carbon quantity. It is the carbon part that has gone haywire.
Trees can easily be replaced. If we did not use trees we would have no shelter, no furnishings and I skip. What are not acceptable are waste and an unreasonable use of resources. Paper should be made of the replanted growth of high yield species and of recyclables. There are species that can grow ten feet in a year but they have to be planted by unethical entities who for their short presence on earth, just want to profiteer. Not reasonable. As it is, paper comes from 'free' virgin northern forests where trees take hundreds of years to grow up to a measly six inch diameter; not even an inch a year. These regions will afterwards not be productive for at least three hundred years. The paper mills release chlorines and whatever whitening agents in the natural waterways, destroying them forever. And then again I skip.
Second: Electronics are friendlyer.
Not!
How easy it is to rely on power supply! Have we forgotten how New Orleans has to fight to get it back? Everybody knows most trouble involved in electricity generation; nuclear waste, thermal generator pollution, oil spills and whatever. All electronic devices rely completely on a source of electrical power. And how about battery storage? Lest we forget how these chemicals are produced, how rivers are killed in the process, large tracts of land cleared of trees to park huge amounts of fruitless mineral debris. And what about the residual toxicity of the materials constructing our electronic devices. And then again I skip.
I could go on and on but this is not the place for that.
What we have here is a difference of balance, a fight for the lesser evil. The balance here favors electronics but by a very thin margin. The winning argument will be the size required for the library over time and only when the balance of imbedded energy (*) will have been crossed. I expect this to be after at least 5 or 6 years of responsible use of the same device.
If we look at total differences of ecology between paper books and electronic books, I must declare the paper book the winner for now, all based on one concept. If inks are factored out of the equation by using the new organic based ones, paper books are made from a living organism.
My basis for saying so is this. If we are to be able to live responsibly, all consumables must be provided by living organisms over inert ones in a vision of balance and regeneration.
The only true free energy is the one(s) provided from the sun. It is the only energy that comes not from the planet itself but from outside its boundaries. All others are residual and associated with earthly matter or motion.
In our zeal to promote the ebook we must not bash about the paper book. We like the ebook so much that we tout it about as the only one worthy, but it is not. If all the materials composing an ebook reader were taken from a "replenishable" source, it would win hands down and only for a fact. That it is stored in the ethereal flurry of an electron dance. But then again, so could be its downfall and how easy it could be!
Let me peat and repeat… for now the paperbook is the backup…
(*) Imbedded energy: An equation to calculate the total energy required to produce, distribute, use and recycle a manufactured good. For now it's the best weight used to indicate the influence of man in the balance of ecology.
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