Heresy Alert Level: Vermilion

"Each year, approximately 30 million trees are used to make books sold in the United States -- 1,153 times the number of trees in New York City's Central Park" -- The Green Press Initiative

And those trees are mowed down from virgin forests which ought to be left alone in order to drink up carbon dioxide, pour out oxygen, and carry on providing habitat.

Yep, we need to buy way fewer books. That ought to be primarily the library's job, anyway, not the individual's. And let's face it, when you buy a book it spends the vast majority of its life parked on your bookshelf. Why not let it be parked on a shelf where other folks might read it too? Writers may get their undies in a bundle at the suggestion of this sacrilege, but there's a great big internet out there for lots of kinds of publishing.

So how's this: only buy a book if you will read it at least three times and subsequently loan it out to friends & relations. And if it was printed on recycled paper.