Blog Post #5

In this Each One Teach One (EOTO), I researched how The invention of paper changed the world. Cai Lun invented paper. “Paper was first made in Lei-Yang, China by Ts'ai Lun, a Chinese court official. In all likelihood, Ts'ai mixed mulberry bark, hemp and rags with water, mashed it into pulp, pressed out the liquid and hung the thin mat to dry in the sun”(The History of Paper). 

Before paper, people would draw symbols on rocks or walls near them. “Before paper as we know it existed, people communicated through pictures and symbols carved into tree bark, painted on cave walls, and marked on papyrus or clay tablets. About 2,000 years ago, inventors in China took communication to the next level, crafting cloth sheets to record their drawings and writings. And paper, as we know it today, was born!”(The History of Paper).

Paper solved a problem, and since then we have not gone back to before then. “Back then, scrolls of silk were being used as books. But the development of calligraphy and the animal hair brush, and the resulting proliferation of literature, created the need for a writing material that was cheaper and more practical than pure silk”(THE HISTORY OF PAPER – Conservatree). 

Paper was a large invention in our timeline, but it also had many impacts to the world then and now.  “Paper was both an exchanged element as well as a vector for further intercultural exchange as it allowed for knowledge to be transcribed and then transported over large distances and in its many production centres often sparked a flourishing in written culture”(Did You Know? The Importance of Paper Making Technology in Cultural Exchange along the Silk Roads). The invention of paper became currency and allowed for more money to be a part of the economy. 

Paper was not just used to sell, or draw on, or write. People used it to communicate. “As a result, scribes could produce books and maps faster and more efficiently. While it took another 300 years for Ts'ai Lun's invention to reach the Middle East, and 500 more to reach Europe, this invention forever transformed the spread of knowledge and human communication”(National Inventors Month: How Paper Transformed Society - DOMTAR Newsroom).

Even though the invention of paper had many positive effects on the world, it also had negative effects. “We know that paper production creates toxic gasses and wastes. Some of these gasses are greenhouse gasses (GHG). According to research, about 21% of these greenhouse gasses come from pulp and paper mills [10]. Most of the emissions take place during the production phase of paper”(The Impacts of Paper on The Environment - CARTLY). We know now that the paper-making industry has had a part in global warming.