Alrighty, its 3:40 am and serious angst time. I'm getting this out of my system right now so I can go back and sleep. This time, its about how we publish our information and that self-destructive, unsustainable devouring needs to be curbed.
We have to stop hacking down trees to print daily publications. All publications, newspapers, reports, magazines need to be digitized, uploaded and viewed on portable e-reader devices like Kindle, iphones, phones, televisions or whatever portable technology can do this in the near future- maybe a phone that can project on a portable 2'x1' roll-up screen. This way you can carry your e-paper with you. Dailies like newspapers can be subscribed for through your cable tv. So you turn on your tv, select your morning paper on a menu, and read it on your tv. If you want to see a clip, run movie clips or sound files, or just get on websites of news companies.
Trees are precious life-support organisms. They will be protected like God-sent extinct animals soon. And we brutally bring them down so we can print supplements that carry banal, pointless, stupid, inane, articles on mood swings of asinine, pig-headed, dumbf**k, bane-on-the-earth celebrities and then? Toss that pulp away in a few minutes. This is a sinful, criminal waste. Imagine if I wrote about my angst and had that printed on your hide, had it read by a few people and then, sold it for 5 bucks a kilo. Felt something? On your skin? Am I getting under your skin now, huh?
I don't have kids. But if you do, and if you want your children to inherit a beautiful world tomorrow, stop taking initiatives to print. Really, ask yourself. When was the last time you actually read that printed article or report YOU wrote? And was it really worth killing a tree for? Kid me not. Start reducing today. Go digital so you don't have to explain with gestures to your children what a tree used to be.
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wow this is a pretty passionate post..no wonder you couldn't sleep.
ReplyDeleteI understand and support your point to some extent but frankly its a pain in the eye (literally!)to be reading everything off a screen. I love trees (yep I am a tree hugger)and I hate the idea of chopping them off only to print some "crappy" report which would soon find a place in the garbage bin.
So here is my wish-I wish someone would come up with an alternate form of paper, something not made from tree bark or any bark but should look like paper, feel like paper but is not technically paper (biodegradable ofcourse)!
Perhaps there are better ideas but hey its only 4 in the afternoon here! :)
Wishing you a peaceful slumber
-A random stranger
I have lived without newspapers for 3 years now. I get all my news from the net- mainly http://news.google.com/
ReplyDeleteYou get all your international and national news on one single page. And you can save your eyes too. Your monitor's brightness and contrast can be brought down to 50-60% and you can still read very well off it- without having to squint. Its just that we've gotten used to very bright screens, and then end up with eye problems. I've been working on computers for 15 years now, 10 hours a day and I have not needed glasses yet. Hope to sustain that for as long as possible.
And a thought can hit you like a truck any time of the day. It's upto you if and when you want to express it :)
Take care.
Arjun,
ReplyDeleteIt's freaky, really freaky about how I wrote about the same thing two days ago on my blog. I came across some facts recently (thanks to gems like Greenpeace and Green Living) apart from the precious trees, over 4 gallons of water are used to create a book. I am so alarmed...I always knew the numbers are insane but this blew me away.
So alright, let's hope that people start going digital - there are energy issues there but it's better than cutting down trees for inane stuff, as you pointed out.
Great post. Anger does bring out the best writing in everyone. Thank you for being environmentally conscious and trying to get your readers to feel something. Beer to you!
Hi Rohit (figured your name from a post response :)),
ReplyDeleteHave left my thought on your blogpost-
http://thirdeyesurfer.blogspot.com/2009/08/going-green.html
Thanks for sharing, Cheers!
Loved your passion about this... I do read newspapers and magazines still but hardly take any prints. Will hopefully get more inspired.
ReplyDeleteLiked the idea of having a paper substitute for something that feels like paper... that will be awesome; but I fear it may lead to a complication of another kind. It can't be cloth - as/more precious. Shouldn't be plastic. Sillicon may be... don't know...
Apparently OLED tech is getting there. It will be thin enough to roll up, and maybe some day, even tractile like cloth! For now, moving to new sustainable habits should not be a problem. We are going digi daily already in other ways, like shopping and paying bills online or through the phone. Bank statements are totally PDFed now.
ReplyDeleteek baat bol? i agree we should reduce...but is going digital the answer?? coz the more comps and laptops and whatever it is that we all have to buy to get digital...those are also harmful for the environment. u dump them, they dont go away...they pile up....toxic. so whats the solution?
ReplyDeletebips
We leap frog with technology. Let me elaborate. We stick with the tech we have for a little longer than our urges allow us to. So if we want to change phones every 6 months, we don't. Use it for 2 years or even longer. My cellphone is 4 years old now. Same for my computer at home- its 10 years old, including the monitor. Fact is, these things are still useful. Any urge to buy the latest gadget out there is fueled entirely by shiny-gleaming marketing, to which we are flies to a tubelight, and of course, an impregnable matrix-bubble we live in, which subtely imposes dictats that we are not 'with it', and way down the social heirarchy if we are still using a year old phone or laptop.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, that ultimately one will dump things. Least we can do is recycle and upcycle. Upcycling is bringing back to life old things and using them like new for ourselves.
Just because d-day is inevitable does not mean environment abuse is valid. We all will die some day; but that fact doesn't justify smoking and drinking recklessly! It is for the planet's, and our own longevity that we need to come up with and live up to these ideas.
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