Harry Potter books are destroying the planet!!! (say scientists)

[Flying Ford Anglia]

No: HPFGUIDX 5828

Morning all

I've discovered a possible cause for all the freaky weather
we've been having in the UK recently.  No, it's not the hole
in the ozone layer, it's "Harry Potter and The Goblet of
Fire".  It's so obvious when you think about it.  

Read for yourself.  Here's the story, as reported by New
Scientist magazine:-

****

According to a paper published this October in IEEE Spectrum magazine 
entitled "Harry Potter and the health of the environment", more than 
a quarter of a million copies of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 
were delivered by Amazon.com in the US last year, setting a record 
for online orders. The 400g of packaging used to encase each of those 
books went straight to landfill. And that, say authors Scott 
Matthews, Chris Hendrickson and Lester Lave, is cause for alarm for 
those worried about the environmental impact of e-commerce - not to 
mention all the carbon dioxide emitted by planes and trucks that 
deliver the goods. 

While online ordering does mean that Mom doesn't have to drive a gas-
guzzling car to the mall to get her kid (or herself) a copy of the 
novel, the overall impact is unknown and quite possibly negative. The 
paper concludes: "While Harry Potter cannot be branded as the primary 
contributor to global climate change, the net effect of the current e-
commerce systems is unclear." 

[Source: New Scientist, 18th November 2000]

It's a good job the Harry Potter series is ending with Book 7, 
otherwise JK Rowling could be held responsible for the destruction of 
planet earth


Neil