The impact of ebook readers on the environment
We have already seen that a lot of persons consider modern ebook readers that can be currently found on the market a very good alternative to the classic books, newspapers or magazines. But it is now time to make a brief analysis of the way they influence the environment, of course by comparing them with the classics that use paper instead of a digital display.
Although at the moment ebook readers like the Amazon Kindle were launched some environmentalists claimed that they cannot represent a “greener” alternative to printed books because a lot of carbon dioxide was going to be used in the whole producing process, it seems that things are not like this at all. A recent scientific study revealed that using an ebook reader for a long period and for reading a reasonable number of books can result in a serious drop of produced carbon dioxide. For example, judging after official figures it seems that using a Kindle for his estimated lifetime of four years and reading three books per month, will save more than a ton of carbon dioxide compared to reading the same number of books in the same period but using the printed version.
Unfortunately you can’t think of an ebook reader as a 100 percent cleaner alternative to printed books because there are several components that do a lot of harm to the environment and the main one is the battery pack. However, if you keep in mind that only in the United States 120 million trees are cut every year just for producing paper for books, magazines and newspapers, using an ebook reader can really seem an environmentally friendly solution.
