I know it seems like a no brainer — common sense would tell us that by simply avoiding printing on paper we are saving trees. But this is not always the case. We need to consider the resources that are used in electronic media and the environmental cost.

The carbon footprint generated by servers, storage devices, PCs, etc. is quite large. In fact, a Swedish study claims that the envinronmental impact of reading news online for more than 30 minutes a day has more impact than one year of consumption of a printed newspaper. Who woulda thunk it?

Next time you're making the decision about whether to print something out or view/share it electronically, be sure to consider the environmental impact of both.