ENERGY DIFFS

[Gregg Roberts <gregg -dot- roberts -at- TPOINT -dot- COM>]

> >       It DOES take energy to make paper. In fact, it takes 20 watts
> > to make one
> >       sheet of virgin paper from raw materials. Multiply that by 500
> > sheet in a
> >       ream and your up to 10 kilowatts.
 >
 > Let's see. According to manufacturer's specs, my monitor takes 150
 > watts. If
 > we're talking about an X-terminal, we might expect a little more (no
 > access to
 > one, so I can't say for sure) so let's call it 200 watts. So one
 > ream of paper
 > would run an X-terminal for about 4 days.

 There seems to be some confusion here between energy and power.  The author of
the first quote above hasn't told us how many *seconds* AT "20 watts" is
required for the manufacture of a sheet of paper.  It doesn't just require 20
watts as long as it exists.  The monitor DOES require whatever it requires as
long as it's on (with, I suppose, negligible variations depending on what's
being displayed).  Does the original author (or anyone else) know many
*watt-seconds* does it take to make that sheet of paper?

My guess is, the figures will lean even more sharply toward the
energy-efficiency of paper, even if disposal/recycling is taken into
consideration.  Of course, this does not rule out the superior
earth-friendliness of computers altogether, since "the forests are the lungs of
the earth."  It depends on how you generate the power.  Solar would be the
ideal...this could go very far off-topic very quickly...

--Gregg -dot- Roberts -at- TPoint -dot- com