Kindle devices, like other gadgets, are constructed of the same petro-chemicals that are heralded as so wasteful in plastic drinking bottles. Inside that device is a battery containing highly toxic ingredients, which doesn’t even begin to take into account that the device has to be recharged until the product wears out or becomes obsolete. A book, by contrast, never requires another ounce of drawdown on the electric (coal powered) grid once it has left the publisher’s warehouse. A print publication does not contain toxic parts, and it is even possible to use biodegradable, soy-based inks. A conventional book, magazine or newspaper will not end up in a Third World electronic scrap yard where children pick over the parts in search of something to resell. Books are not carcinogenic, whereas the components in many of our circuit boards are, not to mention the IQ diminishing effects of the lead content. A small child could rip up a newspaper and shove it into his or her mouth and you won’t have to call poison control. It ought to tell you something about how “green” a gadget is when you know that the innards of the device would be very, very harmful if ingested. Do you know, for example, that you are supposed to wash your hands after handling a batter, even a button cell that is designated for your watch? That is because these things are toxic. And that doesn’t even begin to account for the circuitry inside the device itself.

And what about how much energy and wastes that is required to produce said kindle?

read this link to find out:

http://www.persistenceunlimited.com/2007/12/the-26-major-advantages-to-reading-more-books-and-why-3-in-4-people-are-being-shut-out-of-success/

As an Australian based indie author, my books are available in print on Amazon ( http://www.amazon.com/RealmShift-Alan-Baxter/dp/0980578205/ref=ed_oe_p and http://www.amazon.com/MageSign-Alan-Baxter/dp/0980578213/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226877823&sr=8-1 ) and as an ebook through smashwords ( https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/376 including a Kindle compatible edition), but they’re not available on Kindle at Amazon. To publish through Kindle you need a US bank account – as an Aussie, I don’t have one.

By writing off anything that you can’t get on Kindle, you’re cutting yourself off from a massive amount of quality overseas writing. Kindle will spread, I’m sure, but not very soon. We don’t even have an Australian Amazon yet, let alone an Australian Kindle.