Margaret Atwood: green inventor

Acclaimed writer and poet Margaret Atwood is also an environmental pioneer. Her LongPen™ invention, comprised of a video screen and digital writing pad at one location and a video screen and automated pen at another, helps authors and other celebrities reduce their ecological footprints by allowing them to forgo air travel.

LongPen™ uses the internet and video conferencing to allow celebs to meet fans and sign autographs from anywhere in the world. Air travel is a huge contributor of greenhouse gases, spewing more than 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. Bravo, Ms. Atwood.

More than 40 authors, including Norman Mailer, Alice Munro, Dean Koontz, Diana Gabaldon, Robert Kennedy Jr., Rich Cohen and Vincent Lam, have saved over 45 tonnes of carbon emissions by forgoing air travel in favour of the LongPen™.

Check out the green technology in person tonight at the Toronto Reference Library, where Atwood will interview BBC personality and author Kate Mosse. Mosse will read from her new book, Sepulchre, via video conferencing from Sussex, England, and be able to sign books with the LongPen™.