Two things today have prompted me to think more about books.  Specifically, purchasing books and the effects this might have on our planet.  The first thing was that I purchased a gift card for Indigo books, and the second was a survey I did for Sauder regarding using e-book versions of textbooks.

Now, I love books.  I dream to have a fancy library in my future house with shelves upon shelves of books.  I love when I get the chance to lose myself in a book before bed.  But it is only dawning on me now the effects that my future library might have on the planet.  Some quick research told me that the publishing industry is one of the worst in terms of pollution.  Million of trees are cut down, waste-water is produced, and a huge carbon footprint is left on the earth every year with the production of books.  It says here each book printed contributes about 7.5 kg of carbon dioxide equivalents in the process of being produced, transported, and then recycled/disposed of.  Not to mention, the ink that is used can release dangerous compounds into the air potentially leading to asthma and smog.

There’s clearly a trend now towards moving to e-books with the Kindle and other e-book readers being the hot market item.  With a simple click of a button, books can be downloaded onto your reader with virtually no environmental impact other than powering the reader.  But rather than making me excited, the Kindle has me concerned about my future library.  Of course I know that physical books will still be published, but their costs will probably start rising if demand for e-books increases and demand for the real books decreases.  But aside from higher costs, I have to think do I want to continue buying books anyway if there is such a negative environmental impact associated with them?

… the answer to that is yes.  I do!!  I am not quite ready to switch to reading books online or on a little hand-held device (textbooks, however, are a different story).  Now the issue is how guilty should I feel about this decision??  It’s tough to say since big box book stores seem to be experiencing dropping sales lately, so I might have to switch to e-books eventually.  It’s going to be very interesting to see what will happen to this industry in the next few years.