Greenpeace has a website up to send a form e-letter to Steve Jobs (like he’ll ever see them) If you go to this link (http://www.greenpeace.org/apple/), you’ll see a page made that looks quite a bit like Apple’s. They’ve even made a Mac/PC short with actors that look very much like the same actors that Apple is currently using in their national ads. So what you might ask? Well, it isn’t exactly a loving kiss they’re wanting to send. Greenpeace is very unhappy that Apple uses various harmful chemical in their manufacturing process. They want them to stop doing that. A noble goal if the entire industry is being targeted. Except it isn’t. At least not as part of this campaign.
Apple is currently making headlines every time someone in Cupertino passes gas. So it seems Greenpeace is wanting to use some that visibility to shame Apple into using greener methods.One of the arguments that PC users love to point out when comparing the platforms is that Apple has only 5% of the marketplace. OK, this is valid and I accept that as reality. So what are the companies that make 95% of the computers in the world doing differently? Nothing. They are all making their computers the same way.
I would also like to point out that Macintosh computers keep their functionality (as in being able to use current software) typically longer than Windows based PCs. Many of the Windows computers are being tossed because the owner feels they are too slow when maybe all they needed was to be wiped clean and then re-installed with an OS capable of being run. So, we have 2-3 year old Windows based computers being dumped in landfills (again around a 95% market share) while most Macs are kept by their owners twice as long and many times are given to those who might not otherwise have a computer.
I had an iMac DV/ G3 400Mhz that my kids had been using (circa 2000 I think) and my nephew’s 233 Bondi-blue iMac had just died after 7 years (yes 7 years) of use. I had just purchased a G5 iMac and had wondered what I was going to do with the other. Wiped the drives, installed OS X 10.3 (sent the system disks down to him as well), added some software that he might find useful and sent it to him. I also included a FireWire external case that he could put his 233 iMac drive in to pull off all his old data.
So after 7 years of use, a computer bites the dust. Not bad in today’s gotta have better faster society. How many PCs from 1998-2000 are still being used in the US?
Slam Apple if you wish for using toxins in their manufacturing process. But first show where Dell or HP is doing anything different with their larger percentage of the overall market. Change is needed. I don’t think anyone responsible would say different. But the kinds of changes the Greenpeace wants Apple to make would make their products MORE expensive than their competitors than they already are. In order to affect change, go after either the biggest polluters first, or go after them all together. This is more a publicity stunt than an actual effective campaign for honest change.
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