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There's a multitude of negative effects on the water and air supply in paper production in addition to the adverse effects of removing trees from the ecosystem.

There's a multitude of negative effects on the water and air supply in paper production in addition to the adverse effects of removing trees from the ecosystem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_paper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_paper

_delirium 14y ago
True, but to determine a net benefit wouldn't we need the environmental impact of server farms to compare against? Server production/recycling/disposal isn't that environmentally friendly either, although it does happen on longer cycles than for the typical paper document. That said, the cloud version of digitizing is probably among the better cases, because you can aggregate even low-usage users. Home electronics like ebooks readers are probably a better skeptical case: my guess is that the disposal cycle for ebook readers is fast enough to negate the environmental benefits of less ink/paper use.
- ErrantX 14y ago
  That all makes sense. To be honest, my innate feeling so far is that servers > paper. But this happened to spark the question in me; is this actually true? Thanks both for the info!
  - dmoo 14y ago
    It's hard to be sure, are trees for paper simply a crop that takes a long time to grow. My understanding is that the majority of trees used are conifers, so if these trees are not required for paper what else would be planted in their place? Is there any reason to believe that land would be left planted with trees if there was no money to be made by selling them. What other use would the land be put to by its owners?
- icebraining 14y ago
  Ebooks are usually used to read books, and their physical versions require way more than ink and paper. Shipping alone has a big environmental footprint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_shipping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_shippi...

_delirium 14y ago

True, but to determine a net benefit wouldn't we need the environmental impact of server farms to compare against? Server production/recycling/disposal isn't that environmentally friendly either, although it does happen on longer cycles than for the typical paper document. That said, the cloud version of digitizing is probably among the better cases, because you can aggregate even low-usage users. Home electronics like ebooks readers are probably a better skeptical case: my guess is that the disposal cycle for ebook readers is fast enough to negate the environmental benefits of less ink/paper use.

ErrantX 14y ago
That all makes sense. To be honest, my innate feeling so far is that servers > paper. But this happened to spark the question in me; is this actually true? Thanks both for the info!
- dmoo 14y ago
  It's hard to be sure, are trees for paper simply a crop that takes a long time to grow. My understanding is that the majority of trees used are conifers, so if these trees are not required for paper what else would be planted in their place? Is there any reason to believe that land would be left planted with trees if there was no money to be made by selling them. What other use would the land be put to by its owners?
icebraining 14y ago
Ebooks are usually used to read books, and their physical versions require way more than ink and paper. Shipping alone has a big environmental footprint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_shipping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_shippi...