[lbaskin]

Exactly. This is an extreme - and ever more prevalent - illustration of why I don't use air dryers in public restrooms. It also bothers when they says it's done to help the environment. Even if that's true (unlikely, but it saves money and generates good PR), it just makes the environment and those in it dirtier, which probably doesn't help most people.

[superuser2]

You can plant more trees. You can't un-burn the coal that spins the motor. (I wonder if there's a way of actually comparing the environmental impact, though).

[midnitewarrior]

Planting trees sequesters the CO2 that was emitted from the burning of the coal. Cutting trees down and turning them into paper that easily decomposes hastens the release of the previously sequestered CO2 back into the atmosphere, killing us all.

Every time you use a paper towel, you kill a puppy.