Covid is accelerating the decline of pulp and paper which is better for the environment

WaPo has an article on the closing of a pulp and paper mill in Wisconsin.

A warning from Wisconsin

Wisconsin sells more paper, employs more people and has more paper mills than any other state. The industry was already in decline, but the coronavirus delivered a death blow.

30 years ago I was fanatically working on typography and the focus was the end product, the printed page. Type on the screen, the fonts you used to create were temporarily representations of your end product what you print and give to others. At the beginning of desktop publishing, printing was absolutely necessary. Three years later, it hit that why spend all kinds of effort doing things to preserve the ways of the past. The future was fonts for the screen, and started talking about the idea and eventually it got to Bill Gates and he loved the idea which then came back down to me as why did I tell Bill my idea. I did not tell Bill, the idea went on its own.

And now it is all about the screen. Printing is such a low priority. And with Covid you print only for your own use. You no longer print and distribute copies in a meeting. The distribution is electronic. And so much of the impactful content as shifted video which you cannot print.

Creating new ideas that shake up an industry is part of good problem solving. And I love problem solving.