Lilli Day/iStock
DCL
Some folks insist on reading actual, printed on paper, newspapers. They're traditional and comforting. And even though the internet is becoming largely accessible, something tangible—something you can hold in your hands and take with you everywhere you go—is still more accessible. So I understand why some folks insist on reading newspapers the traditional way. But I do wish more people would consider whether reading their newspaper online is greener.
The New York Times recently reported that The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will be an internet-only news source from now on. This will make it the largest American newspaper to embrace this transition fully . The company lost 14 million dollars in 2008, but money isn't the only thing they'll be saving by transitioning completely to digital news.
With all aesthetic and comfort based arguments aside, digital papers can be better for our environment than printed one, but it depends. A study by KTH Centre for Sustainable Communications in Stockholm brought both versions of news, online and print, to the table for research. The study was discussed pretty thoroughly over on TreeHugger. The conclusions they drew regarding the environmental impact of each are a bit surprising. Certainly, online news editions don't require the destruction of trees. They don't require transport and don't enable the pollution that accompanies transport. They don't need to be recycled. The list of pros goes on, but according to this study, these pros have no relevance unless you're doing one (or both) of two things:
1. Reading online news for 10 minutes a day or less. The study found that if you generally take around 30 minutes to read your news, the environmental impact of online news and print news is about the same. When you reduce your reading time to the 10 minute range, you'll come out ahead if you're reading your news online.
2. Powering your computer with a carbon-free energy source. If your house is off the grid or even if you've got one of those nifty solar-powered computer chargers, you can read your news online all day long and do it guilt-free. In fact, this is the best scenario I can think of based on this study.
Both print and online news have one huge green factor to consider each. For print news, it's the production of the paper. For online news, it's the energy required to run the computer.
If you previously thought that reading your news online was always the greener action, you're probably wondering what to do now. With the environment fully in consideration, I'd recommend taking some advice based off of this study: Either read your news online for 10 minutes a day or less or figure out how to power your computer in a carbon-free manner. Unless or until you're doing one of these things, it won't really matter where you're getting your news from.
Small and large publications alike are making the digital change. Now it's time for you to figure out whether or not you should too.
