PROF'S POSER - Book 'im Dano!

This is inspired by a PR piece I read (online) about saving the planet with some eco-books: Dorling Kindersley turns back on gloss for green book range

These go under 'Better than nothing... but...'

Nice little bit of CSR PR , but 'a' range of 'a number of titles'.

Hmnn.

Any numbers on what % of total this is?

And, in devil's advocacy mode, what in the great scheme of things is the actual enviROI- impact of the usual non-ultra 'green' stock/ink, etc vs. the other stuff still involved, namely shipping, etc.

One presumes even non-recycled stock is from managed forests, etc. I have often wondered if these might not be argued as having a carbon sink value that in some way might equate to the processes involved in recycling.

My 'poser' is the last part. Though I am keen to find out more about the totality of the paper industry impact, and what's doing the most in terms of enviROI-, and what can be done to pump up the enviROI+.

I personally love reading paper bound in a form I can look at in my hands. I'd just liek to be sure that waht I do enage with is really that bad... or good.. as is bing made out.

Answers on a postcard*...

Cavalier on climate

'...but is Gordon Brown about to make the same mistakes as his predecessor in Number 10? Saying some of the right things on the international stage, but pressing ahead with policy making as though nothing has changed?'

*Maybe from Bali, Kyoto...

Fascinating ongoing debate in the threads on the difference and/or connections between local, national and international issues. But it is getting hard to sift those with purely political points to score (and may even be paid to trawl and comment in doing so) and those with sincere views, left right or centre.

Mirror, mirror, here in the gutter, what's the truth behind what I utter?

Nothing more edifying or informative than a medium talking about media by trying to slag off another medium.

Press panic

Bet he's glad he asked now.

Speaking, I repeat.. speaking is not necessarily saying anything

Hot on the heels of a more trivial example in our PC-obsessed culture of not saying anything (or often doing anything either) we have this: Australian PM please explain? In Mandarin ..

There is also not being pinned down on anything, not matter what. Hence we get this on climate from Australian PM Rudd:

"There has to be a greater synergy between, let's call it our policy leadership in this, which has been focused so much, legitimately, on targets and global architecture, almost reverse-engineered back to the means by which you can quickly deliver outcomes,"

Leadership on the big issues at the best. I await our Dear Leader following suit as it works so well. or maybe we just insist it all happens in Mandarin so we can get an idea of what they actually believe and are up to.

Sticks stones and weasel words

I have missed out on a few grants in my time, not so much of what I do, but because I often can't.. won't say things happen in ways the clipboard jockeys demand.

And I don't sign forms that are not accurate. Despite 'encouragement' to do so to 'help'.

So I was intrigued not only by the story of a couple denied fostering accreditation because they wouldn't say they didn't resort to the odd smack, but by how it got reported and who got plonked onto the BBC sofa to 'discuss'.

Just love the endless troupes of PC 'experts' that get wheeled on, all so happy that if people tell them something they want to hear then it must be true. Which they then trot out on air so we must believe it is fact, too.

Boxes are ticked. Surveys collated. Idealistic worlds and dreamy headlines created. Only 10% approve of smacking? Very likely, along with the 110% who recycle daily. What else are you going to say these days?

Are we really keen on a world where not only do folk lie in a heartbeat to achieve a result, but the authorities and media choose to ignore and accept this inevitable result of their policies and coverage, just to ensure they get the results they want?

And speaking of talking a lot but without much clarity on the doing, I am now watching a piece on the amount of rubbish washing up on the beaches. It is awful... and a disgrace... and I agree that the only possible solution is international action (so all credit to those who have given their free time to doing a tidy and get coverage to make this point).

But as to what actions we are left a little wondering by the statement that 'it's got worse'. Well, D'uh. And as more and more people come online to make, buy, use and dispose of ever more stuff it's likely to get even worse still. All I do, and for now know I can do, is put my rubbish in the designated containers provided.

I don't think it is that productive to use PR and media to tell the public to stop consuming in this simplistic way, as I don't see folk giving up on fish to prevent fishing nets strangling seals.

Perhaps it would be better to focus for public support on the currently woeful actions of some individuals (not sure how effective telling a person who litters not to actually is, mind) and mechanisms of disposal that mean too many of these now sadly inevitable by-products of human activity are ending up in the drink?

Addendum - Welsh beaches plagued by plastic - 'Beaches in Wales have more plastic litter than any other country in the UK, an annual beach survey finds'.