Beyond Print Media

[pmrid (Peter)]

Perhaps there is a distinction to be drawn between printed matter intended for entertainment (novels, magazines, newspapers etc) and matter intended for academic, scientific, historical purposes.

I found the ability to quickly search and retrieve information enormously helpful in my former career as barrister and later as academic. I once thought having a wall full of books enormously satisfying but now they are merely ornamental. Almost all the data I need can be found quickly and easily on a laptop weighing a kilo or two.

On the other hand, sitting under a tree with a good book is one of life’s great pleasures.

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

Originally Posted by Hemi

Certainly debatable Hans, but irrefutable!

You can store the entirety of what’s ever been printed several times over on relatively few devices. That’s a lot of trees. The environmental cost of printing those books is huge comparatively.

Which brings us back to another point raised in the discussion. How to handle 'Obsolescence' in technology. Anyone watch Big Bang Theory ...

https://youtu.be/SczxwCSt1F8

RAAF moved to putting all their AAP's onto Tough Books .. pain in the rear trying to look at aircraft electrical schematics on a Laptop.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Hemi

You can store the entirety of what’s ever been printed several times over on relatively few devices. That’s a lot of trees. The environmental cost of printing those books is huge comparatively.

Think about it this way. You cut a tree to make a book, you can plant another tree. So you capture back some of the CO2 and you close the loop kind of. Now if you store data on devices that need power to read/write you're using more energy. That's CO2 that we haven't figured out how to capture yet or put back somewhere in the ground. Unless your storage devices run on energy from burning trees only. Then all you have to do is plant back more trees. But I suspect all those massive on demand data centres run on fossil fuels.

[Sunfish (Ray)]

Very true.
Renewable resources .
I have just finished a book , yes a real paper book, called The Wood Age.
Materials come and go but it is always the wood age.
I can lend it to you , the family can read it, which is hard with kindle.

Printing on paper is like printing on farmed grains or recycled rag, there are many things to print on.

Renewable forestry has worked for thousands of years.
Steel can be made using charcoal instead of coal. Far less pollution and CO2 and us still made that way in some places.

Don’t discount the woods just yet.

Originally Posted by multiweb

Think about it this way. You cut a tree to make a book, you can plant another tree. So you capture back some of the CO2 and you close the loop kind of. Now if you store data on devices that need power to read/write you're using more energy. That's CO2 that we haven't figured out how to capture yet or put back somewhere in the ground. Unless your storage devices run on energy from burning trees only. Then all you have to do is plant back more trees. But I suspect all those massive on demand data centres run on fossil fuels.