Is this headline too long?

Most magazine readership surveys say that readers want shorter articles. Magazines have responded by offering shorter articles, and in the next survey readers say they want even shorter articles. In 10 years, our articles may only be five words long. To meet reader demands, this column is actually four very short articles in one. All appetizers and no entree!

NEWS: Book retailers like Barnes & Noble have given up on e-books for the moment. Despite a lot of media hype, consumers have not warmed to the idea of down-loading vast amounts of text and reading it on a computer screen.

COMMENT: Some electronic ideas are great--like cell phones and email--and some are not so great, like digital books. I doubt e-books will ever be a huge success. One reason? With the exception of textbooks, books are a luxury item that people still like to linger over. I haven't heard of anyone curling up with a good computer tablet or bringing it with them to the beach, where it could end up covered with sand or worse. Electronic media is good for short bursts of information, not long, sustained periods of reading.

NEWS: Scientists are coming up with interesting ways to deal with reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, thought by many to be the primary culprit in global warming. One method involves removing carbon dioxide directly from the air--and storing it in rocks or under the earth. This would require a vast worldwide network of wind-powered machines, each removing several hundred pounds of carbon dioxide a day.

COMMENT: How about using a "machine" that already does the job with almost no intervention from humans--trees. A massive, global reforestation program would remove enormous amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and effectively store it.

NEWS: In August 2003, an enormous outage knocked out power to several Eastern U.S. and Canadian cities. The cause? Human error. The problem? Transmission systems badly in need of improvement and a chaotic combination of regulated and deregulated markets that discourages the investments needed to improve transmission equipment. What's been done about it since? Not much.

COMMENT: It always amazes me how Americans tend to neglect things until they break down and cause catastrophic failure. In today's economy, electricity makes just about everything work. Without it, our economy would collapse. Instead of using chewing gum and baling wire to keep a creaky transmission system together, we should be continuously investing in and improving the system. The federal and state governments, which control the regulatory environment, are key players in this system. So it's good to know that our government is hard at work on issues that really matter--like holding hearings to see if a few baseball players took steroids.

NEWS: Many economists think that China will draw even with the U.S. in terms of gross domestic product by 2040 and surge ahead by 2050. While that is a big stretch from today, it is not inconceivable. China has grown at an inflation adjusted annual average growth rate of 8% or more for the past 25 years, compared with only 3% for the United States. The Chinese paper industry is already well more than half the size of the United States paper industry, and is growing faster than any major country. Chinese paper and board production reached 49 million metric tons in 2004, and consumption was even greater, at 54 million metric tons. U.S. paper and board production was 83 million metric tons in 2004.

COMMENT: Seeing this kind of growth in a country without any political freedom is more than a little bit scary. While the Chinese leadership in recent years has seemed fairly reasonable, what if things change? What if China invades Taiwan? The good case scenario is that some form of representative government emerges in China, helping it become a respected member of the international community. The bad case scenario? I'd rather not think about it.

Having said this, the only real option we have is to engage with China economically and politically. One thing that still puzzles me is that no U.S. paper company has made a real effort to enter or buy into the Chinese market. Granted, the Chinese government makes it difficult for "strangers" to enter the market, but there is no excuse for not trying. With the U.S. market about as big as it is going to get, it's time to look elsewhere. And time is not on our side.

ALAN ROOKS

Editorial Director

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Contact Alan at [phone], or by e-mail at: [e-mail]

What do you think about these issues? Email me at [e-mail].