How many trees?

[ProfCrash]

Agreed and those can be handled safely and in a mor friendly manner if the device is properly recycled instead of thrown away. We have a large box filled with old electronics that need to be recycled. I need to find a place to bring them.

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Agreed and those can be handled safely and in a mor friendly manner if the device is properly recycled instead of thrown away. We have a large box filled with old electronics that need to be recycled. I need to find a place to bring them.

Sony has a list of different recycling centers for electronics. Enter in your address and it'll tell you the closest.

[taosaur]

Rare-metals mines and plastic refineries probably have pulp mills beat for environmental impact, but paper-making is still a nasty, nasty process, as anyone who has set foot in a mill town can attest by scent alone. Either way, the erosion of the DTB market by e-readers has to be a net gain, given the sheer weight of pulp being shipped back and forth, much of it never to be sold or read.

[ProfCrash]

Which is why I wish it was easier to recycle electronics. It would be nice if people had a convenient method for recycling those rare-metals. Most people don't even think of it as an option and just chuck it straight into the trash. Then we have batteries leaking in dumps and all those rare metals going to waste.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Which is why I wish it was easier to recycle electronics. It would be nice if people had a convenient method for recycling those rare-metals. Most people don't even think of it as an option and just chuck it straight into the trash. Then we have batteries leaking in dumps and all those rare metals going to waste.

only for a few million years.

[Kumabjorn]

Intuitively I'd hazard a guess that HarryT is correct, but how much more eco-friendly is a Lit-ion battery compared with the old lead batteries?

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Nobody has ever accused me for being an ecological nut job. Yet, here I find myself wondering how many trees are still standing because I now read on E-ink instead of paper. Has there been any surveys? Is it possible to make some estimation? One tree yields how many 250 page paperbacks?
Anyone with a sound grounding in mathematics that can come up with a formula?

I really don't care. Contrary to nutjobs propoganda, trees are renewable. So, how many trees have you planted in your life?

We have nutjobs protesting to prevent the removing of an old and very dangerous Linden tree. Idiots.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by patrickt

So, how many trees have you planted in your life?

Not entirely sure, probably just short of a 100. Redid my yard and planted trees around the border.

[ProfCrash]

Planted trees with the nature conservancy in college as a service project. I think that day the entore gorup planted a couple of hundered.

Trees are renewable but when you chop them down you release all of the carbon dixiode that is in them which is not a good thing. Not to mention that there are areas where trees are being cut down and no replanted which is increasing erosion and hence the water qualtiy and flow in local rivers and streams. Given that fresh water is limited on the planet, that is quite the issue for affected communities.

I have no problem with removing dangerous trees in urban environments. It might suck to lose old trees but preventing fires and massive power outages is more important. I do have a problem with clear cutting forests for lumber for building and firewood or to make space for cattle to graze for a few years before the land dries up and nothing can grow.

Most of the trees used for paper are replanted and that is a good thing. The process of making paper is incredibly enviornmentaly unfriendly. I am happy to do my little bit by using an e-reader. The only paper books that I read these days are ones that are given to me as gifts. Since I was given a Kindle in 2008, I have purchased over 500 e-books. Some of those are repurchases of books I already owned, so lets say 400 new e-books. That is a good number of trees that have not been cut down and put through a very unfriendly process.

It might be a small contribution to improving the environment but it is a step.

And yes, I have three Kindles and my Mom has had two. So five Kindles total, that works out to 80 books pre Kindle so we have more then hit the offset point.

[leebase]

If one wants to include the manufacturing of ebooks...and it makes sense...then one needs to account for the manufacturing of TRUCKS and WAREHOUSES. While trees are indeed a crop, and renewable, trucks and warehouses are not.

The "first delivery" of the book and the ereader are a wash. Trucks, warehouses...call it a draw. For every OTHER book read on the ebook, there is no equivalent use of trucks or warehouses.

As for electricity...unless one reads in the dark or only during the day, one is going to be using electricity to read a paper book. I love that I can read in the dark and do every night. I'm sure I use less electricity with ebooks than I did with books.

Clearly there are bound to be hundreds and thousands of acres of land that are not going to be needed to produce trees for ebooks...freeing up that land for other uses. That has to be a net positive.

Lee

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Trees are renewable but when you chop them down you release all of the carbon dixiode that is in them which is not a good thing.

A fully-grown tree taken out of the forest isn't the equivalent of a sapling planted to replace it. Essentially, that sapling won't be an adult tree equal to what was felled for decades-to-centuries. So the capability of the ecology has been set back decades-to-centuries for every tree felled.

Originally Posted by leebase

As for electricity...unless one reads in the dark or only during the day, one is going to be using electricity to read a paper book. I love that I can read in the dark and do every night. I'm sure I use less electricity with ebooks than I did with books.

I'm sure you do, too: Pulp mills use scary amounts of electricity to create all that paper, then printers use heavy-duty electricity to create books. (And most of that electricity is coal-powered.)

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

A fully-grown tree taken out of the forest isn't the equivalent of a sapling planted to replace it. Essentially, that sapling won't be an adult tree equal to what was felled for decades-to-centuries. So the capability of the ecology has been set back decades-to-centuries for every tree felled.

Trees for pulp are rapid growth trees so not decades-centuries - usual myths... as a result that sapling will grow fast and absorb carbon at a high rate whilst the tree converted to pulp is still keeping its carbon locked in... really good idea converting fully to eBooks because then we'll need far less tree felling... oh yes, we'll have far fewer trees as there will be no reason for keeping large plantations for producing paper and the land will be converted to other (and probably less carbon locking-up) uses...

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Not entirely sure, probably just short of a 100. Redid my yard and planted trees around the border.

That's great and I'm quite serious. Every Christmas I bought a live Christmas tree and planted it. When I sold the house most of those trees were taller than the house. My kids did throw a fit when I brought home a plum tree for Christmas. "Hey, it's a tree, it's Christmas, help me decorate." It was one stick that forked. I hung tinsel and two balls while the kids gave me hell. Then I got the farm-grown tree from behind the garage to decorate for Christmas.

I do undertand that for many people, stopping someone from cutting down a tree is much more fun that planting trees. Oh, the power of forcing people to yield and obey is so seductive. Sure beats getting your hands dirty planting trees.