Paperless or Green

Every time I see someone add to their signature line something along the lines of "Please do not print this email unless you need to. Save the planet", I wonder how much more it was in electronic transmission and storage cost to send those emails out complete with there bright green logo in rich text format.

Were the math worked out would it help the planet more for these green folk to stop the "friendly reminders" and have the recipients do their worst and print the email. I reuse paper always but don't see the point of such cautionary notes. Being paperless as it turns out is not the ultimate green act.

The mind has inbuilt biases that incline us to think that what's new, light, and quiet must be less burdensome than what is old, heavy and noisy, so it's easy to feel green by reading off a screen. But being green often turns out to require rigorous thought and well-collected information, not trusting intuition.

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