I read a lot. But are books (and e-readers) destroying the planet?

Note: I'm sure you're aware of the COVID-19 pandemic (unless, of course, you're lucky enough to be reading this in the far future, which is unlikely since we'll probably be extinct from either the virus or climate change), and I was planning to post more than usual, but, as you can probably guess from the fact that I haven't written anything in literal months, I think we've all realised that that's not exactly what's been happening.

This is gonna be hard for me to write. Truth be told, I'm what parents like to call "an avid reader" and what friends like to call a "nerd", so I wouldn't be surprised if I counted my books and there weren't well over a hundred. I mean, we all know paper is bad for the planet, and I'm sure we've all been encouraged to recycle (and, somewhat ironically, to read) from a pretty early age, but I'm sure I can't be the only one who didn't think until recently to put two and two together and realise that books probably aren't saving the planet either.

So clearly, my reading habits aren't exactly great for the planet. But what are the numbers? Here you go: one book produces over 10kg of CO2 to make, and, according to the reading of a few articles, and asking Siri to do a little multiplication, that means that my collection of reading material used a whooping (yup, only a Brit would say that) 1,200kg of CO2 to make. I'm not going to bore you with how many times you could drive around the earth, or how many laptops you could power with that amount of energy, but I can assure you of this - it's a lot. Just from books. Not to mention the many, many books I've donated and thrown away over the course of thirteen years.

But is a Kindle, or some other kind of e-reader, actually any better? (Hopefully) you've read my post on tech and the environment (if not, you can look at it here), where I talk about the waste created when phones are produced. This is just as relevant for any time of digital reading system, whether it's an iPad and you're using the Books app, or whether you have a Kindle. I myself do have a Kindle, and, shamefully, it's the second one that I've owned, but do the benefits for the planet outweigh the negatives?

To produce, a Kindle uses 168kg of CO2, and that's definitely better than my 1,200kg. However, there are so many other elements to whether you use an e-reader. For example, who reads solely on their device? Can you manage the ever-more expensive costs? Is it really that ethical to be buying from all your books from Amazon or Apple? What about independent booksellers, who are struggling more and more? Honestly, I can't tell you what to do on this (nor would you take advice from a thirteen-year-old in the first place), because it really depends on your circumstances and your personal beliefs on these things. But, and I cannot stress this enough, you do not need new tech, whether that be a phone or an e-reader, unless you old tech is physically unusable.

This is, to be honest, one of those things where I don't think I'm going to be changing my life much over, and I'm not saying my reading needs are more important than the planet, or struggling workers and store owners, but, truth be told, there's no easy solution to this.