12 January 2007 - San Francisco, United States — 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.
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.
Thousands of participants in the Green my Apple campaign
have been dropping some pretty 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.
We even presented Steve with a suggested speech, which
was among the top YouTube videos viewed on the day of Steve's
keynote.
Like Dell.
While Steve Jobs was studiously ignoring everyone's pleas
to make Apple eco-friendly, Michael Dell of Dell computers
was doing what Steve should be doing: leading. At the Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas, (a poor cousin to the grandeur
which is Macworld) Dell said:
"I challenge every PC maker to join us in providing
free recycling for every 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!
So if you love Apple and you want to buy iPods and iPhones
and Macs that aren't going to poison kids in Asia and Africa
when they reach the end of their lives, join the campaign
to get Steve to do the right thing.
