I read an interesting article (and subsequent discussion) this week discussing the ‘green’ merits of eBooks. Of course anything ‘green’ or ‘eco’ is all the rage right now and as an individual concerned about the environment it actually frustrates me a little. I love awareness and discussion about the environment, but recoil at commercial abduction of the subject. Some products claim to be ‘eco-friendly’, but these claims rarely bear scrutiny. We’re told to believe that a certain product is environmentally friendly and that we’re saving the rainforest or Antarctica, when in reality we probably aren’t.
Anyway, that rant is over. The question is whether eBooks are a ‘green’ alternative to print books. This is a big subject and I won’t cover it in this post, rather it is something that I’ll be exploring in the coming weeks. Some major areas of the debate centre around the sustainability of paper printing, whether production processes of electronic goods outweigh benefits of digitisation, and also the energy implications of maintaining the digital infrastructure (servers, internet cabling etc). It is a complex subject.
I would love to hear opinions about this. I’d love to discuss by email, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and I’ve set up a new thread on the Book Sanctuary forum as well as a Facebook ‘discussion’. Comments will also be activated on the blog as soon as possible. My next post on the subject will address sustainability of print, including paper production. I will be striving to maintain a balance in the arguments, as I personally want to see print and eBooks continue and succeed. Until the next time…
All the best,
Thomas
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