It was holy week in Apple land, when all us loyal Mac fans turn to face the Macworld conference in San Francisco to hear where Apple is going to lead the consumer electronics industry next. But while we waited hopefully for Steve Jobs to announce better environmental practices, less toxic contents, and the greener Apple we've all been dreaming of, all we got was a phone.
Is an iPhone in her future? E-waste in China.
OK, it's a
totally cool
phone, but still, it's a phone. We wanted an industrial
revolution. One that would address the problem of all the e-waste piling up in China and India.
Thousandsof participants in the Green my Apple campaign have
been dropping somepretty big hints to Apple about what they wanted
announced at Macworld.
They've been writing to Steve, blogging, creating graphics and ads, t-shirts and buttons,
photographing themselves hugging their macs.
For our part, we bathed the Apple store in San Francisco in green
light and put our cardboard Mac Guy (star of our alternative Mac Ad) on tour at the conference,
and helped a small squad of Green Apple volunteers with the task of
handing out leaflets about the Green my Apple campaign. It was
popular stuff. They ran out of leaflets.
They were spreading the word about how much more Apple could do
than the little that US law requires, which has earned them a pat on the head from the Bush Administration's
Environmental Protection Agency.
Weeven presented Steve with a suggested speech, which was among
thetop YouTube videos viewed on the day of Steve's keynote.
Butwhen it came time for the real speech, we didn't even get a
measlyKeynote slide about Apple's continued use of brominated
fireretardants, PVC, and stuff that other computer manufactures have already agreed to phase out.
Like Dell.
WhileSteve Jobs was studiously ignoring everyone's pleas to make
Appleeco-friendly, Michael Dell of Dell computers was doing what
Steveshould be doing: leading. At the Consumer Electronics Show in
LasVegas, (a poor cousin to the grandeur which is Macworld) Dell
said:
"Ichallenge every PC maker to join us in providing free recycling forevery customer in every country... all the time == no exceptions."
Now that's the kind of different thinking we're asking for with
the Green my Apple campaign. Steve, he's stealing your moves!
Soif you love Apple and you want to buy iPods and iPhones and
Macs thataren't going to poison kids in Asia and Africa when they
reach the endof their lives, join the
campaign to get Steve to do the right thing.
Take action
You can help by creating campaign materials, shooting pictures, cutting movies, or just sending an email to Steve. See what others are doing and saying at the iBuzz page.
Support us
Obviously, we won't be looking for any fat corporate contributions from the computer industry anytime soon. We rely on donations from people like you to keep us going and keep us independent.