The other day Jake, a blogger for Live Green, introduced himself over at his blog. Patrick asked the question, "How does a writer become green when we need computers and shelter and publishing requires lots of paper and ink?" Jake responded, and Brent made an especially insightful point: "one writer who uses paper to spread a message about living greener is doing more good than harm."
As a writer I struggle with Patrick's question too. Brent and Jake answered the question quite well, but this strikes at the heart of the problem between sustainability and excess. I love to write, and I love to read. I also love books. The feel and weight of a book, the old paper smell of a dusty volume from years ago. For me the act of reading is synonymous with the act of holding a book, flipping the pages. One thing I love about old books is the way the printing presses used to really press into them to get the ink to stay. You can literally FEEL the words.
There are new electronic readers, flat things from Sony, etc. that hold a number of volumes and skip over the nasty processes of making paper and printing on it. Honestly, though, I'd never, ever buy one. To me, that's not reading. There is really something that bothers me about that. Reading on the internet is one thing; I'm all for internet publishing. Especially if it's me being published. But if I'm reading a book, I want a real book. The hippie side of me says that the act of book creation is wrong. It kills trees, uses energy, and printing is a chemically intensive process. The pragmatic side says books and paper are essential features of our lives, and it would be wrong to deny the world the satisfaction of a good book on fine paper. I know that after working in front of a computer all day, I don't want to spend the evening reading in front of...the computer. The writer side of me says that books, besides being efficient, useful, and friendly, can oftentimes be true works of art.
I need to reconcile these sides of me. The simple fact is that bookmaking doesn't have to be unsustainable; it just is. Trees are a renewable resource, we just use them so quickly that the renewing process is broken and unable to catch up. There are ways around this; print on something else, like hemp paper or certified-wood paper or recycled books. Make fewer books (not the first choice for an aspiring poet looking for a book deal, as I am). Buy used books whenever possible (my favorite solution). And there is print-on-demand: you walk up to a kiosk in a bookstore, select the book you want, then leave. Come back 15 minutes later and your book is printed and bound and ready for you, made right there in the middle of the store. This technology exists; I've seen it work myself (in trade shows; there's no real-world use yet). This way, books are only made when they're needed, so you avoid waste.
This is a great example of the need for and possiblity of a middle ground between the environmentalists and the steady-as-she-goes crowd. People can't reasonably be expected to give up books outright. Even a hippie such as myself wouldn't know what to do in a bookless world. The solution is to work on making better books that are worth the paper they're printed on.