E-Books vs Paper Books
Check out this article from The Washington Post:
In it, Brian Palmer writes that iPads and Kindles are better for the environment than real books, given that you "consume a healthy number of titles, you read at a normal pace." Really? Is it as simple as toxins/chemicals vs cutting down trees? I really like his conclusion: "An even better option is to walk to your local library, which can spread the environmental impact of a single book over an entire community."
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I like the idea
I like the idea of IPad's and Kindles but I can't entirely say I buy into replacing an actual book. I like the feeling of a book in my hands and I don't think that books altogether will disappear.
Definitely
You're talking to an English major here and I will never let my paper books go. Nothing like underlining with a real pencil and keeping all my notes in the margins :)
Yeah, I couldn't let a book
Yeah, I couldn't let a book go. Plus, think of all the toxins we produce when we manufacture electronic good.
This op-ed piece from the NY
This op-ed piece from the NY Times in April compares and contrasts the environmental costs of ebooks and paper books:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E7D61F38F937A35757C0A...
A big thing to consider is one-time environmental effects versus continuous environmental effects for each type of book.