There are more people crowing about going green than ever before. But it seems that only goes as far as using recyled plastic bottles and sending our newspapers to the recycling plant instead of the landfill. While everyone wants to be so green and save power, they are buying up Nooks and Kindles and all these other devices. Oh, they argue, it saves paper!
How are they powered? By a rechargable battery (Another green option, people cry gleefully).
Question: How do those "rechargable batteries" get recharged? Electricity!!!
True, there is wind energy nowadays, and solar, but not 15 miles from my apartment is a huge coal fired power plant, cranking two stacks worth of smoke out into the enviroment 24/7. That is a mute testiment to those rechargable batteries being less than green.
Meanwhile, books are touted as "wasteful" and "space hogs."
A book, if properly cared for, can last centuries! A public library with a fair sized stacks can keep a town in all the books it could want for quite a while, and that isn't factoring in interlibrary loan. You know, a book doesn't need recharged. You can read a book by firelight, sunlight, and I've done it a couple times by particularly bright moonlight.
A book's pages can be made of recycled paper, and for the purchase of one book, literally hundreds of people can use it. There is a green solution to wastefulness. Try saying that about a Kindle.
How are they powered? By a rechargable battery (Another green option, people cry gleefully).
Question: How do those "rechargable batteries" get recharged? Electricity!!!
True, there is wind energy nowadays, and solar, but not 15 miles from my apartment is a huge coal fired power plant, cranking two stacks worth of smoke out into the enviroment 24/7. That is a mute testiment to those rechargable batteries being less than green.
Meanwhile, books are touted as "wasteful" and "space hogs."
A book, if properly cared for, can last centuries! A public library with a fair sized stacks can keep a town in all the books it could want for quite a while, and that isn't factoring in interlibrary loan. You know, a book doesn't need recharged. You can read a book by firelight, sunlight, and I've done it a couple times by particularly bright moonlight.
A book's pages can be made of recycled paper, and for the purchase of one book, literally hundreds of people can use it. There is a green solution to wastefulness. Try saying that about a Kindle.
Interesting perspective. I don't own a Kindle and hadn't thought of it as a way to be green, perhaps a way to save money if one purchases alot of books........which I don't. Why purchase when the library is right down the street, cause sometimes I'm lazy. I do try to be green, have for years, long before it became popular the 2nd or 3rd time round. We've used cloth bags for years, recycled wrap boxes for gift giving over and over. Turn the heat on lower then most, wear sweaters, live close to our work, drive less, etc.
ReplyDelete