Those wacky euro lab denizens Discover MC TV have just added a new video, “Culture Club”. Follow the trials and tribulations of a group of cells as they discuss the benefits of cryopreservation (”better than DNAge!”) and tensions due to uncontrolled stem cell division (”This petri dish is overcrowded already! We need to start a political movement to preserve our identity!”).
Wonderful, absurd, geeky.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3397338667466695131
December 17th, 2007
TerraChoice, an environmental marketing company, have created a website entitled “The Six Sins of Greenwashing“. The list has interesting points to make so I thought I’d write about them here. First on the list is “the sin of the hidden trade-off”:
Okay, this product comes from a sustainably harvested forest, but what are the impacts of its milling and transportation? Is the manufacturer also trying to reduce those impacts?
I’m torn on this “sin”. On one hand, TerraChoice are right to point out that ticking one box is hardly making your company entirely environmentally-friendly, and that if an organisation really wants to be “green”, they should implement changes throughout to better minimise their environmental impact. On the other, however, is the fact that all decisions are trade-offs, especially in something as complicated as environmental friendliness. You have to chose whether your child’s pyjamas are going to be flame-proof or non-carcinogenic, whether your electricity production is carbon-neutral or free from nuclear waste, whether using disposable tissues offsets the energy costs of washing handkerchiefs, and so on. The end result being that no process can be entirely “green” or sustainable, especially when the end result has to be an affordable product.
TerraChoice also highlight “the sin of fibbing”, which hinges on products that claim to be “certified organic” but in reality are not. This point stuck in my throat because “organic” is a completely arbitrary notion anyway, and there is no real way to certify because there are no concrete rules as to what constitutes “organic”. This is compounded by #2 on the list,”the sin of no proof”, which singles out companies that do not provide easy ways to verify the claims they make. (In this case they highlight claims of personal care products that claim not to be tested on animals, which is a moot point to us EU residents where animal testing of cosmetics is banned).
I’m still glad the list exists, and while I don’t agree with it all, it does provide some food for though. Check it out for yourself and see what you think.
December 17th, 2007