The book is dead, or so I’ve heard. Do you feel there is any need for people to go on cutting down trees in order to print information that could be made available online?
I’ve always considered myself a bit of a hippie, coming form a family that has an environmental conscience, we’ve had bucket in the shower for years, taken material bags to the supermarket before green bags were ‘trendy’, my internet home page is blackle not google and we always recycle. So the answer that jumped into my head immediately was stop the press; books have no place in a society were technology rules, and global warming is our biggest threat. sorry Beatles but no one wants to be a paper-back writer. It took a little while for me to subdue the hippie inside me and think about the advantages and disadvantages of having books available both online and in hard copy.
i personally have found that when a book is avaliale online such as a weekly reading for a university unit I will take advantage of that and read it off the computer, it work well for me as im in bed under the covers with my laptop keeping my legs warm listening to cut copy on window media player I think it makes the experience of reading Andrew Herod’s “The practice of international labor solidarity and the geography of the global economy” even more enjoyable (or bearable). Generally I print out the articles only if they are significant relavance to an essay or other marked assignment, and this means I am able to leave out particular pages should they be of no relavance to my purpose, saving paper ans ink in the porcess. Since beginning University I have used the online books available through the libraries catalogue to my advantage. Having resources available online has many advantages:
- the obvious factor that it saves paper
- more than one person can read it at a time
- They are mighty useful when one is in need of more references at 2am the morning before an essay is due.
And yet there is other factors we have take into account before we burn all books and send printing companies out of business. Are having these books available online a more energy environmentally sustainable way of getting information? It is true as well that there are advantages to books in hard copy form; they can be taken anywhere which makes reading or doing reach outside in the sun much easier. A hard copy also means you’re less likely to be caught with cramps in your legs, a strained neck and a head ache from staring at a screen for hours. But on more important not I would like to bring up the potential effects that moving from hard copy to online books would have on the environment and also the possible international effects.
There are arguments that are true about the longevity of the book and arguments can be made to keep it in our culture. Computers use energy this is true and each time you want to read a book this would mean using more energy or wattage. Where as one a book has been made there are no further energy costs. Having all reading material online would mean computers would be on constantly, to read papers, check the weather, read a novel, and research for papers essays and assignments, with implications of constant of energy use.
The one has to question the justice in having books only available online and immediate reaction is that the book would reach more audiences, and this argument can be seen to be true in the developed world, where internet is readily available to the majority of the population through private computers of internet cafes. However developing nations who are already being affected by the gap between them and the developed world would pushed further away from pulling themselves out of poverty. The individuals from these nations are unable to pay for internet access and the governments are not able to provide schemes to assist the majority in the ability to gain it in the way that developed nations are able to. As exemplified in the Australian Labor parties pledge .
One cannot make the argument that (all) books are a waste of paper; It has to be said that there are most defiantly greater wastes of trees that exist today, flyers, advertisements; magazines that tell you how to lose weight, the books surly should be the last of all paper products to be abandoned. But the advantages of having books online are obvious and well worth the sacrifice by ensuring the prolonged existence of our forests. It is then perhaps adequate to suggest the gradual phasing out of books in hard copy form and through this gradual process ensuring any inequalities that may occur because of their abolition are solved.
