Online trade is booming; more companies are using business-to-business (B2B) websites; and More people are working from home. Looks like our future is inevitably headed towards a network society.

If this sounds good to us, it does as well to our dear Mother Earth because the internet allows us to use energy and resources more efficiently. Like, for each newspaper, magazine, catalog, and phone directory you read online, you save tons of paper. A study by the Boston Consulting Group concludes that the internet will have reduce worldwide demand for paper by about 2.7 million tons a year by 2003, and that means thousands of trees will be saved.

You can also help save the planet by buying books and other things in the Internet. A thing purchased online costs less energy as compared to conventional shopping. “Real-world” stores use up a lot of heating, lighting, store rent and space unlike online stores. So when you are purchasing online, you are in a way conserving some resources to the delight of the planet.

Internet may save the planet only partially because not all have access to it. But while we are not yet connected to the Net, we can still work together to save our environment in whatever means we can and have. 

By: IRISH F. BACOLOR T-1, Jose C. Payumo Jr. Memorial High School Naparing, Dinalupihan, Bataan