I am noticing more and more emails with this message at the bottom. I fully support everyone doing what they can to help protect our environment but on this particular issue I do not fully understand the concern and here is why.
One of the most renewable resources on earth are trees. I am not talking about the trees in the rainforest that are being harvested. I am talking about trees that are commercially grown for the purpose of producing paper. It is currently reported that 3 trees are planted for every tree that is harvested for paper production. Tress that are commercially grown for paper production are fast growing (mostly soft woods). The paper that is produced is bio-degradable.
What I would worry more about is the carbon footprint that is required to make all of the computers that are producing the emails. If you look at the componets used, they are either metal or plastic (derived from oil). Computers are not easily disposed of like paper is. Computer componets, for the most part, are not recycled and if they are it is very costly to do so. Computer monitors give off radiation that enters our atmosphere.
The point I am making is that our society has adopted the computer (and emails) as a mainstream communication process and we have to understand that paper is a major part of that communication. We should all continue to make wise choices as to what needs to be printed but I don’t think what the alarmists are saying about depletion of our natural resorces through the printing of emails is as big of a deal as they make it to be. What are your thoughts.
Bye for now, Scott
One Comment
There are a lot of things that people do in the name of saving the environment that is more about making the person feel good about themselves than actually helping the environment. Today there is a push to get rid of plastic bags at stores. Do you know why we started using plastic bags in the first place? Environmentalist wanted us to move away from paper bag to save the trees. Now the same people who brought us plastic bags are now saying they are bad for the environment.
Just a little common sense can go a long way to make the world a better place.