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It seems clear cut, right? Newspapers = felled trees galore. Therefore, it must be greener to read your news online, where no wood has been pulped to bring you the current events.
Not so fast.
As is often the case in this crazy mixed up world (where the problems of a couple people can amount to more than a pile of beans. Casablanca? Anyone?) the situation is a whole lot more complicated than that. This recent in-depth This vs. That investigation into online news and newspapers on TreeHugger revealed some surprising results.
Namely, it's really not all that much better for the environment to read your news online. And why is that? Well, it gets a little complicated. But the gist is this—depending on how long it takes you to read the news online, you're likely using a decent amount of electricity while you do. And if you live in the US, that electricity probably comes from coal-burning power plants (as 49% of electricity in the US does), which, of course are among the worst environmental offenders in existence. They're leading contributors to climate change thanks to their huge output of carbon dioxide emissions. And that's not to mention the dangerous byproducts, ash waste, and mountaintop removal mining that comes with the package.
On the other hand, if it takes you only 10 minutes to read the news, the amount of energy wasted isn't enough to rival the environmental costs of wasting the paper that goes into a single newspaper. If you spend closer to 30 minutes reading a paper, then the playing field is all but leveled—if you spend even longer, the paper is actually the more environmentally friendly option in a lot of cases. At least until more of our electricity is coming from clean sources.
So for now, don't feel too guilty about buying the paper--especially if you don't get it delivered and you're savvy to the fashionable reuses for old newspapers. But let's hope that percentage of coal burnt energy comes tumbling down in the near future.
More on Newspapers
Oldest Newspaper In The World To Stop Killing Trees
Find 10 New Uses for Old Newspaper
Should We Care that A Seattle Newspaper Just Stopped Printing?
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