immoral

in my last post I urged readers of this blog (if there are any, which is doubtful given that the statistics provided by Blogger indicate there aren't)

to click the link to Jaded Ibis Press and to read their manifesto-like justifications for the choice to publish books on a POD basis,

implying that the way Farrar Straus & Giroux and Copper Canyon and Four Ways and other normative publishers operate is,

ecologically framed, immoral—

but here's what Jaded Ibis says, copied from their site:

Jaded Ibis Press uses digital and print-on-demand publishing because we care about the fate of the environment. Our business decisions are guided by an attempt to perpetuate literature that is intellectually, culturally and ecologically sustainable. Every year we donate part of our proceeds from one book or music project to a non-profit organization dedicated to environmental and/or cultural sustainability. Learn more about our Giving Projects.

YOU SHOULD KNOW.

Each year in the U.S. alone hundreds of thousands of new titles are published by traditional printing methods; that is, in bulk quantities. An average of 150,000 multiplied by an average print run of 5,000, multiplied by an average of 200 pages per book equals nearly 150 Billion (150,000,000,000) pages annually, plus book covers and jackets.

Half of these books will be returned to their publisher and destroyed or liquidated. Those that cannot be liquidated will also be destroyed.

Timber is cut down not only for the billions of book pages and covers but also for the wooden pallets on which to ship the books. Two-thirds of the world’s cut wood, including rare hardwoods, is used for shipping pallets.

It's difficult to put a number on the enormous amount of energy used to warehouse undemanded books; to manufacture the ink, paper, binding materials, and shipping pallets; to transport the pallets from printer to warehouse to bookstore; to process the fuel used to transport the pallets of paper products and books, to manufacture the transport vehicles, to manufacture the parts used in manufacturing the vehicles, ad nauseam.