What Is The Environmental Cost Of Reading Our Favorite Magazines?

Here are a few eye-opening statistics that I found in the latest issue of Audobon Magazine (which, incidentally, is now printing 90% post-consumer recycled paper stock created by Leipa -- up from 30%) regarding the amount of resources necessary to produce just one magazine title:

1) Less than ONE PERCENT of the 17,000 magazines circulated in the United States contains recycled paper content.

2) The magazine industry is responsible for felling one tree every second -- a total of 39 million trees each year.

3) 2,165 trees, three swimming pools worth of water (equivalent to 41,291 bathtubs) and the same amount of energy required to power 49 homes in one year is necessary to produce just one magazine title.

4) Just one magazine title is responsible for generating the same amount of CO2 as what would be released by 78 cars.

All of these figures were calculated using the Environmental Defense Fund Paper Calculator, so while there may be some skeptics out there, even if we cut the figures above in half, it's still hard to deny that this source of entertainment generates an extremely large carbon footprint.

So many of us are spending more time online rather than at the newsstand, but I have to wonder if the energy that we're consuming to keep our computers juiced up is just as much of a drain to our environment as the magazine industry's use of paper, water and power.

Does anybody know which one is a greener entertainment choice?

If we succumb to our magazine fix and diligently recycle, does it make everything alright?