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Yesterday we explored one of the publishers [Cinram] that are apparently (according to the Tera Report) losing jobs due to consumer file sharing which Patrice Geoffron of Tera Consultants has determined should be classified as the principal cause of damage to the future of media publishing companies in the EU.
In the report he claimed;
The study focuses primarily on the effects of digital piracy, which refers to various forms of online piracy, including file-sharing via peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Digital piracy is growing rapidly and accounts for the majority of economic losses to the creative industries.
From 2008 to 2015, file-sharing traffic in Europe is expected to grow at an annual rate in excess of 18%. If the losses from digital piracy were to grow at this rate, the result would be revenue losses in recorded music, film, TV series and software of approximately €32 billion in 2015
I think by now, most of the world realises that file sharing is a result of the digital content not being made available by the Content Creation Industry [in fact we proved that file sharing is 39% more likely to occur when digital content alternatives were not legally available, here… Tera Rebuttal Response 1 – File Sharing – Convenience, Availability.]
Today, we will briefly study the cost to the environment and humanity of the continuation by industry in resisting the digital landslide and continuing to output their content on materials whose manufacture, distribution, utilisation (handling) and disposal by mankind is both an environmental and serious health concern.
We all know that traditional methods of publishing on paper, CD’s and DVD’s pollute our atmosphere and landfills.
But do we know how much pollution is generated by these outmoded forms of information distribution mediums?
Last year (May 12th) I published a brief article about how many Newspapers it took to build up the carbon emissions necessary to build an Ayers Rock.
The combined total of the different divisions of News Limited in 2007 output a total of 47,742 tons of CO2 per annum which is enough to build 2.83 Ayers Rocks.
For overseas people, Ayers Rock is the big thing in the middle of Australia that Martians can see without a Telescope. [Yeah? Well how do you know there aren’t any Martians? Oh, the Mars Rover…. Well maybe Martians are clever and walk around behind the Rover so it cant see them……)
In the heart of the Australian Outback, a massive block of red sandstone rises up out of the near-perfect flatness of the eroded landscape. Called Uluru, or Ayer’s Rock, this giant is a monolith 348 meters (1,142 feet) high, 3.6 kilometers (2.2 miles) long, and 9.4 kilometers (5.8 miles) around. It is the largest single rock known in the world.
OK, back to News Limited.
Their electronic Division only output 498 tons of CO2 for the same period.
Therefore if we can assume that the digital audience is as large as the traditional paper audience, (and Rupert Murdoch’s recent revelations would suggest that it is larger); we can safely deduce that digital delivery is 95.86% less harmful to the environment.
It would seem to me that irrespective of the Tera Reports apparent desire (by basing the majority of it’s study on paper production), to see newspapers continue to be printed, our environment can’t actually afford the publishing business to continuing destroying our forests, landfills and peoples health.
[BTW, the Tera Report blamed the loss of jobs in the News paper publishing business to be due to piracy……. Yuk yuk yuk. Which reminds me of the Fallon joke from last year….. I guess the Somalians board the Newspaper delivery trucks and say “Give us your newspapers or we’ll run you through…”
Rupert is an Aussie. (Yes, we invented him here….) So that when Rupert says (as he will in the next couple of years) shut down the presses, he isn’t laying off workers – he’s saving the Koalas, Platypi, Kangaroos and you and I.
Now if the Government could just get its head around the fact that Digital is good, Paper and plastic is bad – well we could start saving the economy.
Save the planet – download a file….. and don’t dispose of that old scratched CD in a landfill.
Just one question – if no-one buys newspapers and magazines any more, what will we do with all the extra trees?
Gee, maybe we could actually breathe better.
On the 12th of May, I covered the topic from a slightly different viewpoint.
In other words, what was the damage to the environment of using CD’s or DVD’s?
I said….
We’re on the verge of an infrastructural shift as profound as any in human history, on the scale of the Industrial Revolution.
You might say we’re going to be seeing the other side of that revolution, and it will change our political system, our ideologies, and our beliefs.
Richard Heinberg. July 2006 (On the topic of Peak Oil and the ultimate breakdown of civilization due to a lack of oil to manufacture products like CD’s and DVD’s.)
We’ve blogged about carbon emission reductions through utilization of P2P technologies to lower man’s footprint on mother earth. [i.e.: Social networking replacing group gatherings, to an extent, digital file transfers and consumers blogging to each other].
But we haven’t really given a lot of detail. This week I came across Basecamp Earth, Ecological Footprints and a couple of the comments reminded me that I needed to revisit this theme.
Nobody did – but we found out…
Diagram of CD layers.
A. A polycarbonate disc layer has the data encoded by using bumps.
B. A shiny layer reflects the laser.
C. A layer of lacquer helps keep the shiny layer shiny.
D. Artwork is screen printed on the top of the disc.
E. A laser beam reads the CD and is reflected back to a sensor, which converts it into electronic data
Constituency can be laser coated, polymer dye impregnated polycarbonate containing; aluminium, Bisphenol A, heavy metals, silver halide, gold, nickel sulfamate, sodium hydroxide, acetone, argon, laquer, zinc chloride.
As well as the cost to the environment of the CDs, DVD,s and the packaging; there is the cost of production.
News Corporation have given us an insight into the environmental cost of content creation with their carbon abatement accounting for the movie Futurama Movie on DVD.
They are the first large publisher that has acknowledged that the output product of media companies is damaging to the environment. Their Supply Chain breakdown of carbon emissions acknowledged that fact and they then purchased carbon offsets (400 million dollars plus) to make the DVD, carbon neutral.
Source: http://www.newscorp.com/energy/iwgy.html
Thank-you Rupert Murdoch. The world owes you one…….
The actual DVD manufacturing was outsourced to Cinram. What we did learn that out of a total of 368 tons of CO2 generated, the largest component was in the manufacture and supply of the DVD’s that went on sale.
In fact 70.7% of the total carbon emissions was due the medium that the content was delivered to the public on.
It could be argued therefore, successfully, that every illegally downloaded copy of the movie was offsetting additional damage to our environment.
How much damage?
That depends on the number of DVD’s actually produced. If was say it was one million units produced, (based on the following snippit from the-numbers.com)
DVD Sales Performance Released on DVD:November 27, 2007 DVD Units Sold: 808,771 Consumer Spending:$14,688,651 See full information for Futurama – Bender’s Big Score
Which translated into carbon emission terms equals approximately three kilometers of driving in your car for each and every CD/DVD produced.
News Corporation realise that this is a problem because they then did a spiel on how Cinram were improving their efficiencies……
(At least those divisions that haven’t been moved to China to hide the real ecological damage.)
Reducing our energy use, switching to renewables, encouraging suppliers:
Several energy efficiency initiatives are underway at Futurama, TCFTV and TCFHE offices. These initiatives include lighting upgrades, maximization of chiller units, IT energy reductions, and other office equipment efficiencies.
The manufacturing facility for TCFHE DVDs is owned and operated by Cinram in Huntsville, AL. In recent years, Cinram has completed significant energy efficiency and waste reduction projects. Energy efficiencies include the installation of highly efficient electric injection molding technology and a highly efficient boiler, resulting in substantial electricity and natural gas savings.
With regards to waste reduction, Cinram has taken on recycling and reuse programs in its markets. All “waste” products are sorted at the Cinram facility in order to separate potential valuable elements for use by other industries and businesses within the community. As a result, Cinram has created partnerships with other companies in the area to take the “waste” for reuse in other products, resulting in the great majority (at least 98 percent) of the facility’s waste being reused rather than disposed of in landfills.
One of TCFHE’s printing suppliers completed significant energy efficiency upgrades over the past two years, resulting in reduced energy consumption by 750,000 kWh and more than 80,000 ccf of natural gas.
Future initiatives include energy audits at supplier facilities, including Cinram, printers, case manufacturers, and raw material providers.
Additionally, Futurama, TCFTV and TCFHE are seeking out new opportunities future carbon reductions and working with their partners to do the same.
Therefore we now know, that over 70% of the environmental cost of the entertainment was the manufacture and distribution of the physical medium.
i.e.: The OLD method of delivering content, a la the study by Tera Consultants who believe that lobbying Government to change legislation in a manner to to keep the old publishing ways is the best alternative for keeping jobs in the EU……
So we put it to the Industry – if the industry (with the exception of News Limited) has a problem with carbon neutralization of the carbon created during the manufacture of plastic, CD’s and DVD’s – then we don’t really want any part of that problem either.
Either CD’s and DVD’s should be banned immediately or, the industry should have to pay carbon offsets on every CD and DVD manufactured, retrospectively to 1998.
How can the content industry expect mankind to pay for it’s folly. Because that is what the current legislative moves [ and the Tera Report….] are all about. Buy – Buy – Buy…… like there’s no tomorrow because WE (the glitterati the elite, the Music business deem it so…….)
We want our payoffs now – WE’RE too old to care about tomorrow’s environment – are you?
Don’t buy a CD or DVD today and save at least 2 bandicoots, an owl, a platypus, two possums and a koala from being poisoned tomorrow.
Glossary:
P2P Communications between two or more citizens of the world not requiring a central point of contact or internet routing. The Term is sometimes mistakenly used as a catchall for the practice of file sharing.
The term originated in ancient Mesopotamia around 4,000 BC when it was the recognised method of financing a farmers future crops , via their neighbours – pre the banking the age.
References:
Basecamp Earth, Ecological Footprints.
http://basecampearth.org/exp2/calcost2.htm
CD’s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_manufacturing
Physics of AV items and RFID – security aspects of RFID tags do not work with AV items – possibly due to the metals in CDs
http://surferblue.wordpress.com/2008/06/28/rfid-in-libraries/
When the oil runs out: Take a second look at biodegradable cellulose packaging films
http://www.packworld.com/whitepaper-22652