E- Learning and global warming

I've always thought one of the major appeals of e-learning was it's potential to make a difference environmentally. Less cars on the road, less building and construction, more time for other activities etc but recent discussion about the impact of computer use itself may be calling this into question as is indicated by this article on digg There has been a longer history of concern about energy usage from buildings and as this article from Inhabitat points out 40% of landfill is building construction waste. For a long time now I could not see the logic of people having to travel for meetings and or study but if the solution is no better than the problem what is the point? There is little sense in substituting one type of problem for another so as computers are ubiquitous now the emphasis should be shifting to energy efficiency how energy is generated. If that happens then both sets of problems are being addressed.