Save the Amazon (web store)

The Amazon that delivered a 16 x 14 x 10 box with no published recycled content doesn't get it. Inside was a 30 foot roll of crumpled paper (packing material) and two small Belkin cables.

Is it really that much less expensive to pack, move through the warehouse or handle?

Amazon does so many other things right. Which logistics outfit is responsible for these calculations?

Nothing is Simple, not Even Shoes

Peter Rukavina had it right when he questioned the merits of an ad from Simple Shoes brought to my attention. The copy reproduced here is from Rolling Stone. Rukavina wrote of the Simple message:

"None of which, of necessity, takes away from the authenticity of their Simple Shoes message. But it does make we wonder how deep their thinking goes, and how much of it is simply brand posturing."

It's wrong to expect only small companies embrace sustainable manufacturing practices. The heavy lifting is going to have to be done by bigger firms in order to make a difference, and to get the message out that there are alternatives. It's OK even when they posture as smaller firms.

Wealth and Critical Thinking at Google

In Part 2 of Lowell Bergman's Frontline documentary on the media in America, he interviewed Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. Picture a person half-smiling throughout the interview, even when asked questions that could affect Google's own future. Google does not produce news, but it is affected by journalists and what is said about it. Fair and thorough investigative journalism will be needed to cover stories about Google's actions in China, or its tricky partnership with libraries, which some view as threatening to copyright owners.

When journalism questions its own professionalism, it's healthy. It will clarify and perhaps expand the profession in useful ways. When a wealthy industrialist -- let's call this man what he is, not a cult figure -- cavalierly dismisses questions about whether it's significant that web media has practically no full time reporters, he's not defending democratic openness and citizen participation. He's making the case for a fox running the henhouse.