Every morning, my dad gets the newspaper from the front sidewalk.  He goes straight to the front page, and then reads the sports section.  My mom likes to do the crossword puzzles when she has time in the morning.  My younger brother reads the comics.  My question is, are paper newspapers really necessary?  Now that online newspapers are available, we can save ink, paper, and carbon released in the manufacturing of the newspapers. 
Another point is what if some families don't have access to online resources?  My suggestion is specialized newspapers.  For example, in my family, we only read the front page, sports, business, and entertainment sections.  What if households could choose which sections of the newspaper they want delivered to their house every morning.  Through online newspapers and possibly specialized newspapers, we could save resources and the carbon being released in the manufacturing.

This is a good idea! I know that most newspapers have a website, but they still give out the papers every morning, and my family doesn't read it so we recycle it. I know of plenty of people who do not need the paper copies, so they throw them away. There should be a survey on what families need, if they don't need the news, or if they just need certain sections. Since we are able to publish things online, such as magazines, comics, newspapers, and plenty other things, I think we should, since it reduces our carbon footprint.

Maureen, that is an excellent idea. It took me a few years to get my parents to switch from reading the newspaper to reading the online version. Now, my family reads the online version. I know that some families don't have access to internet or a computer to read what is going on in the world. I believe the government can reduce the carbon released into the environment by giving newspapers to people who do not have access to online resources.
Technology is becoming a big part of people's lives in the U.S., so the government can have the newspaper companies post their newspaper online instead of printing out billions of copies increasing the carbon released into the atmosphere.

I agree! It would be quite nice to buy only the sections of the newspaper you are going to read. I believe, even though that technology has advanced greatly, some people still stay in their 'old-fashioned way' and may refuse to buy online versions. It may be nice to have an option to either buy an online or paper copy. Also, maybe if the paper copy cost more, then some people may consider buying online versions of the newspaper. Reasons for an increased price in the paper copy of the newspaper include the labor cost of someone delivering it, manufacturing costs, and merely the cost of the CO2 emissions in being released into the environment by the printing of the paper.

This is a very interesting idea. http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number … s-decline/ According to this website, 23% percent of Americans read a paper newspaper. Now, that number has been dropping steadily in the last 10 years but it still a huge amount of people. Imagine how many pieces of paper that wastes! All those dead trees! And when you're done, it's consumed, you throw it away. You get a new one tomorrow. This is a very wasteful attitude, it teaches us that our resources are disposable and makes us believe that they are endless. 500,000 trees are killed a day just for the newspaper. How long will this last?
I don't understand the need for a daily newspaper in modern times. If something important has happened, we would most likely see it as soon as we log on to the internet. 87% of the US population has internet, and if they don't they'll probably hear news by word of mouth or on TV or on the radio. We live in the age of communication, so why are we still reading the newspaper? That was used in the days before t he internet, when people lived far away from cities and had no idea what was going on.
Also, like Maureen pointed out, her family only reads certain parts of the newspaper. With the internet, you can get endless information about what does interest you, and you don't have to waste all that paper that you won't even look at. I think that nowadays, paper newspapers are a waste and there are much more efficient ways of getting the news. If most people switched to the internet newspaper, more trees would be alive, there would be a lot less waste, and you'd only have to read what you want to!

This is a) a really good idea and b) completely doable.  Seeing as you live in Texas (I assume based on the profile picture), here's some contact info for Texas and National newspapers:

Texas Observer- Phone: 1.800.939.6620
Address: 307 W 7th Street, Austin, Texas, 78701
or call (512) 477-0746

Dallas Observer-  http://www.dallasobserver.com/about/contact

New York Times-
letters@nytimes.com (Letters to editor)

opinion.video@nytimes.com  (Op-Ed Video)

Washington Post-
http://help.washingtonpost.com/ics/supp … ptID=15080  (General Contact)

In addition, you don't have to contact any of these directly- movements can be started by general suggestions.  I suggest making a video or something else that can be easily shared. Good luck!

Can you find a reference that documents how many trees a community could save if they switched to reading the news online?