Digitize the Environment
written 9 Nov 2007 while the sun tried, at least, rising
The problem with the Earth is that it’s a physical, tangible thing. It provides us with all sorts of goodies like oil, water and the sound of crickets humping, but these are all limited resources that we can use up or pollute.
Basically, everything we have needed to be made from some resource. What I see as one of the greatest innovations of our modern age is the ability to eliminate CDs and DVDs from our lives. If all of the movies and music, and even books, we wanted to partake of were digitized we could not only easily access them from wherever (think a weekend at your overly Christian in-laws where they only have Jerry Fallwell Sings Your Christmas Favorites and all of the channels blocked but Cornerstone) via some type of Internet.
The amount of plastic and paper that could be saved is overwhelming. In 1990, over a billion CDs were sold. That’s 3,960,000 tons of plastic created if you include the jewel cases. Every year 100,000 pounds of CDs become obsolete, whether it’s outdated software or just getting rid of old music.
A lone soul responds...