Science News Online
 
  Week of June 12, 2004; Vol. 165, No. 24
 
  Newspaper's Footprint: Environmental toll of all the news that's fit
  to print
 
  Sid Perkins
 
  The environmental impacts of getting a newspaper dropped on your
  doorstep each morning vastly outweigh those of receiving the same
  information via a handheld electronic device such as a personal
  digital assistant (PDA), according to an analysis in the June 1
  Environmental Science & Technology.
 
  [IMAGE]  GREEN SCREEN. Getting a newspaper via PDA emits less carbon
  dioxide and other pollutants than are produced by printing and
  delivering the paper version.
 
  S. Norcross
 
  To compare the modes of news delivery, Arpad Horvath and Michael W.
  Toffel of the University of California, Berkeley scrutinized the full
  range of industrial processes needed to supply a Berkeley resident
  with the New York Times for a year. That newspaper—with nearly
  1.2 million weekday subscribers and 1.7 million on Sundays—has
  the largest 7-day circulation of any U.S. paper and is available via
  PDAs over wireless networks, says Horvath.
 
  A year's worth of the New York Times weighs about 236 kilograms.
  Manufacturing the newsprint produces about 660 kg of planet-warming
  carbon dioxide and consumes about 22,700 liters of water. Printing
  the paper generates about 37 kg of CO2, and delivering it from the
  local printing plant and then carrying half of it to a
  landfill—the rest typically gets recycled—adds another 5 kg
  of the greenhouse gas.
 
  Because 2.6 people read each printed issue, on average, Horvath
  calculates that each  New York Times reader in Berkeley is
  responsible for adding about 270 kg of CO2 to the atmosphere each
  year. If the paper were printed on totally recycled newsprint, annual
  CO2 emissions would drop to 158 kg. Assuming current recycling rates,
  total emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx),
  which contribute to smog and acid rain, are about 0.9 kg and 1.4 kg
  per reader per year, respectively.
 
  Manufacturing a PDA and its batteries takes about 22 kilowatt-hours
  (kWh) of energy, says Horvath. Assuming that each PDA lasts 3 years,
  that's about 7.3 kWh per year. Uploading the New York Times to a PDA
  consumes about 6.3 kWh annually, and charging the device's batteries
  consumes about 3.1 kWh.
 
  When the researchers included the energy needed to manufacture the
  small fraction of the telecommunications infrastructure needed to
  upload the New York Times, annual energy consumption totaled about
  24.7 kWh per reader. In California, that energy usage produces only 5
  kg of CO2 and 4 grams each of SOx and NOx. Annual water consumption
  associated with reading the Times on a PDA ranges between 123 and 340
  liters, depending on whether the reader uploads the newspaper through
  a computer or directly to the PDA through a wireless Internet link.
 
  "Paper is a very resource-intensive product," says Brad Allenby, a
  civil and environmental engineer at Arizona State University in
  Tempe. Nevertheless, he concedes, people typically don't consider
  environmental consequences when they choose how they'll read a
  newspaper.
 
  Even with the new analysis, Allenby adds, "I don't think you'll find
  many people curling up with their PDAs on Sunday mornings."