Hey, You Condescending Jerk, No One Prints Emails Anyway

It’s meat not meet.

That was fun to read. I fully agree

Please don’t print this post unless you really need to. Thank you.

oh…that would have been a much better title.

Well there goes the email printing industry.

you have no idea how many people ACTUALLY print most of their emails.

Oliver,

You do?

Actually Michael….and you being a lawyer, you’re going to love this one…every time I visit my lawyer in the UK, they bring out a very very thick file with all my emails printed out in it….including the ones that say ‘thanks’ and then have all the previous conversation in them!

So - it’s not ‘normal’ people that this is aimed at….it’s lawyers!!

I for one will start and lead these following campaigns of internet denizen efficacy:

-Google ‘Print’ Buttons for Gmail — No Mo!
-Paint the TechCrunch wallpaper background Red — In Support of Causes!
-(alternately) Paint the TechCrunch wallpaper background Black — Wastes less energy on displaying!
-Change the facebook ‘Causes’ app name to ‘Cause’ — Their T-Shirts will use less ink!

Who’s with me?!

Same goes for the “If you received this email in error…” disclaimers.

hah. I added an update - I forgot that every one of our posts has a “Print Posts” button below it, sponsored by Hewlett Packard. I encourage you to use it.

Wow…Mike..when was the last time u got laid, my man?

You’re a bit of an ‘idiot’ for assuming that nobody prints out emails just because you don’t. There are a lot of computer-illiterate people that refuse to read emails on the computer and force their secretaries to print out the emails so they can read them on paper. I’ve heard of many instances of this.

Charlie - who cares! it’s a piece of paper. Jesus.

Awww, eating meat pollutes! I didn’t need to know that! Well, that’s one more thing to put in my portfolio of guiltiness…

nice bit of Friday evening reporting - i’m with you mike - thanks for the laugh

Michael, Believe it or not; there are several companies in Colombia for whom i’ve been hired that have as company policy to print and store every single email sent and received (at least at the “Executive” level, its also normal for a secretary to go through the company president’s email, read, print and then physically deliver in memo format)… small companies nonetheless, Some dumb mistrust in technology. Go figure.

-mp

Mike,

this post was hilarious. These “Green” types don’t have to be so damn smug, either.

— But i agree, anything beyond a signature at the end of emails i consider noise.

(sorry, fat finger submit)

-mp

Definitely a useless rant. Keep posting interesting news though!

This isnt up to the individual users in many cases - the company I work for (a top financial corp in NY) automatically adds this footer to bottom of every single email.

I use primopdf to print anything into PDF’s first. I think every computer should automatically add a PDF printer by default. The advantage is sometimes i print to the paper even if i don’t need it later, Just for my archive. For example, you did a online shopping and at the end it asks you to print the order summary, we print it and dump the paper later. But with PDF printer like PrimoPDF.com you can print it to PDF and send it to your email as attachment. You can always search for that email with the keywords and retrieve the attachment and print it if needed.

My 2 cents.

my dad used to print every email until he bought a laptop. he would go print out all his emails from the previous night every morning, and read them with his breakfast.

now he keeps his laptop on the kitchen table.

I get these emails w/ that “disclaimer” and I think its a desperate call for attention. With more and more people reading their emails on their mobile, there really isn’t a need to print. An observation, it is the ‘older generation’ that like to print or see/read documents on hard copy. Anyone agree?

I see these sigs all the time, and everyone who sends them to me is a lawyer or paralegal. Legal offices are notorious for wasting reams of paper. One study in CA claimed 75 reams of paper per attorney per year, four times the national average. That’s about four trees per attorney. The numbers keep going up each year for most firms because of their practice of printing everything.

There are quite a few dumb fucks - mostly at the executive level - who print emails. They are not “real” unless they are on paper. I could slap shit out of them.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye . . .

(shit, did my useless comment just eat up bandwidth and increase the amount of co2 in the atmosphere? oh well . . . I’m gonna buy myself one of these http://www.presto.com just to spite you all!)

Better yet, print each email that includes the signature line and snail mail it back to the sender with a handwritten note thanking them for their email.

And what about those random inspirational quote insertions after the email signature - can you get those stopped? And those graphical Plaxo signatures - get those banned too.

As a frequent flyer, I see many flyers/seatmates who carry file folders full of printed emails that they inevitably markup with a pen, then fire up their laptop and edit…emails. Again. At first I thought the paper email approach was to optimize billable time during take-off/landing but many of the same people read (paper, not e-) magazines or books during take-off/landing, then do paper email, then open up a laptop. I’d guess many of the paper email people are attorneys, accountants or financial services workers based on the leather or high end Tumi nylon briefcases with embossed/embroidered company names/logos.

Can someone explain the paper email + laptop email practice? It is too pervasive to be quirky behavior. There must be a reason.

will - oh my God. The presto. forgot about that too.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....ld-people/

Why can’t more bloggers take this position?!

Mike, thank you.

Please don’t breathe unless you absolutely have to.

Did you know that every time you breathe out, you are releasing the deadliest of greenhouse gasses… CO2?!?!? For the sake of the planet, and for the sake of the children, please stop breathing. If everyone would stop breathing, the planet could stop suffering our incessant CO2 emissions. Who cares that exhaling CO2 is a natural process, and that all plants NEED CO2 to survive and put out oxygen (you know, the stuff we breathe in so that we can survive)?

Or…if you insist on breathing out, please buy carbon credits from one of the companies Al Gore invested in before hyping up global warming which then made him excessively rich. I’m sorry, did that sound cynical?

Mike - decaf, brother. Who cares what people put in their emails? Who cares if they print their emails? Take a deep breath . . . .

belly breathe. calmer now.

I used to be like Kyles dad, and yes i agree it probably is the older gen that abuses that option to print, but i gave it up early in the 90’s when i realized i then just had a bunch of stacks of unread mail laying around.

But let some Tree Hugging wanna be tell me not to print, geeze
PRINT AWAY!

Why does it seem like this whole friggin “green” thing comes and goes every few years……… oh yeah….. FAD! Screw it, im turning all the lights on.

Hi Mike -

I’m an IT consultant, so I interact with a lot of organisations where IT is just a service dept, not a primary function. I’m assuming from the content of this website that your interactions are with people who live and breathe internet.

Even though I’ve been working with non-IT folks for years, I’m still stunned by the number of people who print out *everything* (not just emails). And it’s not just older folks or management types — I see plenty of 30 something office workers who only feel they’ve accomplished work if they’ve printed something out and put it in a neatly labelled lever-arch folder in their bookcase. I know it seems stupid, but it’s really common.

So for those people, whacking that line of text at the bottom of emails is really a good idea.

And just to take a step back and get some perspective:

- how often do you read to the bottom of emails anyway?
- do you really care THAT much about it?

Looks to me like you couldn’t find anything else decent to post but need to update the website, so you ranted about the first thing that came to mind.

Why not just rehash the MS/Y! story?

Cheers,
Stewart

I started reading the title “Hey, You Condescending Jerk..” and I thought you were writing about yourself…… honest..

Stewart - hah, Kyles Dad. I replaced the picture of Gore and Bono with a shot of the Toyota Pious. For those of you who don’t know what we’re talking about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smug_Alert!

Why does your HP print button want to print off 30 posts dated back to 2005?

I print emails on recycled paper. Is that wrong?

I’m not sure. I’ve never actually clicked it.

I will do my part to “save the planet” by eating the cows. The green industry is a joke and a scam.

I love to hear about people trying to stop climate change. If anything, that could have a far, far worse effect than a single degree change in a few hundred years. The only thing I would be worried about regarding climate change is if it stops changing.

Then again, arguing against climate change changers never works because they don’t exactly follow the guidelines of scientific research. Suggesting “all scientists agree” is probably the most invalid statement in the history of science, and is incredibly limiting.

hahaha, i laughed out loud at the update! Greenies (my coinage for people for a green living) see change as embodying an image not action. Watch a TED talks sometime and you will see real ideas that make a difference.

Don’t be an arrogant prick. Many, many people print their emails. It’s not the fact that I care that they do (from your response to one Charlie), it’s that you are arrogant enough to assume that because you think it’s uncool, then it doesn’t exist. Get your head out of your ass.

“Last week at Davos, Earth defender Al Gore himself made it clear that personal choice decisions at the individual level have little to do with helping the environment. What matters ….”

I agree with what come after “what matter”. But the part before that is a lame excuse. So Mr. Gore somehow convinced you that what you do does not have an effect. Well one person can make a difference and as cheesy as that sounds it is quite true.

All in all, the post was very cynical and one of the worst I have seen on Tech Crunch - or any website for that matter. So I have decided to go by the name of “Please don’t print this comment unless you need to” for all future comments.

this is a great topic. i will have to start putting this on all my emails. i have the “If you recieved this email in error delete it or you will have bad luck for many years.” or something like that.

Why do you have to use language like “jerk” and “idiots” just because some people have a difference of opinion with you ? I don’t think that makes them an idiotic person. Sure, lots of people print email, especially the elderly. If I were often sending mail to such people, reminding them about printing etiquette via a line in my signature does no harm. Those who don’t need the advice are free to ignore it.

and btw, is this how startups get “dings” and their stories “killed” at techcrunch ? OMG, I must remember to tailor my signature to Lord Michael’s personal preferences, otherwise my startup might wind up in the deadpool before I even get started.

classic mr angry pants. good stuff. welcome to the club.

Your mother asks that I print all of your posts! I’ve told her it isn’t necessary, but she’s afraid ‘the computer’ will will fail when she wants to read them.

Please talk to her! She doesn’t believe me when I tell her that printing this stuff will cause a massive tsunami in Washington, so convince her it is so!

dad

You’d be surprised how many senior corporate types print their emails. Hint: a lot more than the Web 2.0 folk. Just an example, Warren Buffet asks his secretary to print and bring him his emails.

Regarding Al Gore, easy for Gore to criticize the government while he is wasting C02 with his private jet.

IMHO, most companies should ban printers, except for proposal writing or rare circumstances. The printer is probably the most hated device in office, well ahead the vending machine and there is no reason to deal with the amount of headache it causes.

You would be surprised how many people are paper oriented. My boss for example would not review a document/email off a laptop. He has to have a hard copy.

How much extra paper is wasted (where people who like to print emails continue to do so) and the green “do not print” comment adds an extra page to the print copy.

Also how much extra ink and color ink is wasted? Causing more global warming. As these green comments are normally not in black ink.

Political correctness gone mad I think

Michael, you might point out to these clowns that printing emails actually increases the demand for paper, which is precisely what motivates the paper industry to plant trees in the first place. Less printing means fewer trees.

Look out, it’s Man Bear Pig!!

bovine gas the main problem. What about human toots? Could be a nice marketing angle for Beano.

“personal choice decisions at the individual level have little to do with helping the environment.What matters is that our governments make the right policies…” ? wow! I have lived to hear this… Everything is about personal decisions… even those governments who make the right policies have to be elected by individuals.I think that you are not aware of what is happening to our planet.We are destroying our home.This is not a matter that you can mock of,dear sir.Just read some stats about Earth,worldometers.info or others.

Mr. Arrington: I wish to politely request that you chill.

You are in a position of influence. You’ve got quite a platform here at TechCrunch. You could be doing something positive. Instead, you are complaining about a line at the end of some people’s e-mails. These folks you’re hating on are just trying to do something positive. Maybe you don’t think it’s a good cause, but you shouldn’t throw an international tantrum about it. Frankly, you’re just being selfish.

And now your rant is influencing many other people, some of which will get all hot and bothered about something that wouldn’t have mattered to them before visiting this site.

I’m not against soapboxes. But I want to make the world a little more tolerable instead of adding to the myriad frustrations of life.

adam -feeling a little smug?

@51 and all; in the 90’s I worked at a hi-tech consultancy. Here’s how my boss, VP at the very blue, very big company managed his emails:

- he had his assistant print it
- fax it to whichever hotel he was at
- sometimes it had to be re-faxed, if Big Boss already moved on
- he made hand-written notations
- hotel staff faxed it back to Assistant
- Assitant typed response back into email and
- sent it using his boss’s email account

… all in about a week

@53: “How much extra paper is wasted (where people who like to print emails continue to do so)… Also how much extra ink and color ink is wasted?”

Not very much. Maybe you were trying to be funny. It didn’t work.

So the comments here are complaining both about people printing email AND about other people telling people not to print it. MA’s answer is government regulation. What would Ron Paul do? Maybe his followers can tell us.

Check this out: http://www.blockposters.com/

You can take a simple image, blow it up huge, and print giant posters on a regular printer! Printing’s cool.

Sure one of Arrington most retarded post.

Michael - don’t chill!!! Speak it brother. Seriously.

And keep driving your Honda SUV. You work from home - so you’re more eco than dorks that commute to the city in their Prius every day from effin Cupertino.

Tyler - Prius? You mean Toyota Pious, right?

@61: I disagree …

Those messages are so widespread now they are ineffective, they waste more ink and waste more paper than they save.

Very few people that want to print an email will decide not to print it because of this message.

I don’t print emails generally because I don’t see the point, not because of these green messages.

If I am going out to a meeting and an email has the agenda, a map, or other details on it that I need, I will print it regardless of these green messages.

When I need to print an email, these messages at the bottom waste more ink and also sometimes paper if it creates an extra page.

Check this out http://printgreener.com/

seems to be a better alternative.

I’ve seen that exact tag line from some people, I’ve also seen people that print stuff just to look at the pages and then put them on the shredder.

Awesome F#@king post! This is why I read TechCrunch. More More More!

Keith

Ha ha. I can just see the holier-than-thou dork’s face as he adds that line to his email template.

This is a surprise to me. I was expecting a backlash from the green people, but most seem to be in agreement.

Personally, I get upset with the lines at the end of @yahoo or @hotmail email addresses….just annoys me.

Then there are the people/corporations with huge disclaimers at the end (ridiculous even if it is for legal reasons).

…or the people who give instructions on whether you are allowed to post the contents of the email…(don’t they know bloggers have no shame?)

I have to agree with Adam - Michael stop your rants and concentrate on the industry!

If you want to print…print. If you don’t…don’t.

But did this really require a Michael Arrington story? It’s not like this is your personal blog - it’s your business! Seems to me your advertisers are paying for your insight into tech companies not someone’s email signature.

Jason - slow news day! My God, Microsoft made a public bid to acquire Yahoo. Google launched a new product. Not your average Friday. This was just me winding down after a long two weeks.

Slow news day?!? What the hell! What in the world would you consider a BUSY news day, Jason?

Do you understand Michael, that choosing white as the background color of this column is using up huge amounts of energy for nothing! You really should consider changing to a darker color, see for example http://www.blackle.com for inspiration

Why does everyone assume I’m going to print e-mails onto paper?
I use the Waffle printing method.
Waffles for paper and syrup for ink.

Perfect for secret documents/porn.
Terrible for school homework.

“My Dad ate it” rarely goes down well as a good homework excuse.

Mmm.. Waffles.

Rant excused, because both amusing and correct.

Funny, I was having a rant about exactly the same thing at work yesterday…

Has anyone done an analysis of all the extra disc space and power these ‘green’ messages are wasting? And if, on reflection, yes, you think you really do need to print a copy of the email, what about the extra toner used in printing off the green message? And what if the green message takes the length of the print to an extra page - wasted paper! Dead trees!

Seems to me these greens are trying to destroy the planet.

Re: Marek

Does blackle really save energy ? well I use http://www.darkoogle.com since they have the similar page option in the search result. Also the result seems more relevant.

@80, Ray: holy shit, more relevant? That means business right there! If they’re more relevant than Google is AND they have a black background, that must mean they’re the next big thing - can I get stock?

Come on. “Results seem more relevant”? So you came up with a way for google to give users on your page more relevant results than those they’d get if they did a query on their own (and white) pages? Snap - you’ll be rich in 2 seconds.

Well put Michael. Amen.

I have to confess to printing emails from clients to put in front of employees to ensure that the job gets done. If I don’t, jobs can get left for days while these clever, environmentally friendly web 2.0 inspired types get on with their own agendas rather than earning their salaries (and mine).

I’d like to be as green as I can, but sometimes the job demands a little carbon based coercion. It’s sad, but true. The guys in the office are great, but without a page to tick off the tasks, we may all be out of a job.

I have changed mine from “Please consider the environment- do you really need to print this email?” to “Please consider the environment”

exiva.com
share your life, treasure the life

Arrington says:
> Stewart - hah, Kyles Dad. I replaced the picture of Gore and Bono
> with a shot of the Toyota Pious.

wtf?

I’m pious because I’m pointing out that there are people that print out emails? Well, I guess it’s your website and you can act as arrogantly as you want, but crikey mate, you realise that anybody in the world can read what you’re saying, right?

mike — having a bad day???

some tips to get to a better place:
1. spend more time with meghan asha
2. hang out with other friends
3. do yoga
4. volunteer
5. masturbate

I encourage all my mails to be printed. Who knows how much energy you save by switching off your screen that much earlier each day?

Please print this post. When you’re done, place your print in a carrier bag. The bag will not decay for thousands of years, and when placed in the rubbish, it is likely to be buried in landfill. This is one of the best forms of carbon capture (CO2 from air -> paper trees -> paper ->ground).

No paper is made from rainforest timber. Paper forests are grown in Scandinavia, and effectively capture CO2 as timber. If the paper forests are no longer used, as paper is recycled or computers take over, the land will be converted to farmland, which is far less green.

Please print me. Show me to your friends.

plenty of people print email. and it’s frustrating as hell. all of the higher-ups in my company print their email. i have one guy who doesn’t even read it on screen. he prints them all out and then reads them. i’ve tried to explain to them how having it electronically is so much more useful, but it’s a losing battle.

hmmm, maybe i can appeal to their fiscal sense. i could write a script that displayed a message everytime they printed email: “the email you just printed cost the company 6 cents per page. Thank You!”

While I suspect that many people do print email when it’s likely unnecessary, it’s hard to imagine that seeing such a signature message would make much of a difference. Does anyone know of studies that look at whether/how people process messages in email signatures?

Some of the people among my contacts who have this in their sigs are people I deeply respect and like, which somehow adds an additional unfortunate twist.

As to those above who’re giving Michael a hard time about this post, puhlease. It’s his blog, he can write about whatever he wants. If you want to argue against the logic of the argument, fine, but arguing against what topics he covers seems misguided and silly (not to mention annoying).

so “personal choice decisions at the individual level have little to do with helping the environment”

guess finding a new better job that’s 3m from home, not 25, and cycling to it yearround outside chicago for the last 30 months has been fruitless

but wait, there has been lots of fun, a loss of 30lbs, and plenty of $ saved, as only bought 3 tanks all last year, insurance cost less than half, etc. and diet is now about making sure getting enough to eat!

so perhaps hybrid hubris is smug, but my choices are extremly arrogant and so government better quickly subsidize some more softly suspended luxo-trucks minus actual utility for carrying around one overweight caffienated American and sometimes even their canine justification, too

Maybe nobody prints e-mail in Silicon Valley, but it sure is common behavior in the American heartland, and it becomes increasingly prevalent as you move up the org chart.

Michale,

Please report on the news and other cool “techy” stuff and keep the infantile comments to yourself!

How that’s intense.

I’ll be honest I saw it on someones email, and so I dumped that line in my email footer. Why? because alot of idiots DO print emails. I’ve had to ween one of my staff off doing it. Another developer I know, ALWAYS prints out emails to bring to meetings (whats wrong with a f***ing laptop?!)

As for you Mike, someone of your fevour, as you’ve demonstrated, is not going to dictated to by a one line email footer. If you dont want to give a shit about the environment, your choice.

Don’t discourage others from doing their bit - especially when its as harmless as this. Alot of people print their emails. Alot of people ARE idiots. This world changes on a mass scale by people being repeatedly reminded things over and over again. Its how we learn as children: Look left and right before you cross the road. Eventually this stuff sinks in. One could argue even at a subconscious level, being reminded of the impact we have on this planet is of benefit.

So, does this mean I shouldn’t advertise we’re a cardbon neutral company for fear of offending Mike or anyone else? No. Its rubbish. If you take offence at this, god help you.

Jeez, maybe this is why we’ve not had as much press as Twitter … and I thought it was just our lack of PR budget… ;-p

…And dont anyone try and spin some yarn about extra bytes equals extra server load equals extra CO2 from the extra power … bla …

@EvilBoss - err, use the Forward button? give your staff email addresses? use Basecamp or any other of the 100 to do list Web 1.0+ train on tracks built free services??

Hey, you condescending jerk, quit assuming everyone in the world is just like you and your friends in your little bubble!

PS> much worse is when people attach graphics or use those torrid MS Outlook backgrounds on their email - making each email 50k+ instead of 5k. Surely that is far more worthy of a rant than dissuading people from trying to educate others. This planet needs all the help it can get!

(Unless you’re a Bush loving numpty who is convinced that global warming is made up for the good of an embittered Al Gore and the eco-warrier nutters? in which case you’ve probably stopped reading this post already anyway…)

@94. Erik

Hey big boy - throwing those names around. Go on, call me another one. It really gets me going. Maybe this time you can even write a retort that uses an original insult that wasn’t taken from the posts heading?

Erik, I’m sorry if you feel so insecure that you’re offended by a one-line email footer encouraging good housekeeping for the planet.

In case you hadnt noticed, there is some pretty serious climate shit going on outside my little bubble.

If everyone in the world were like me, firstly the planet would be an intensely boring place, but also rather sparsely populated. Not to mention seriously inbred.

I’d suggest you wake up, stop judging people you have not met and get on with doing something positive rather than cast aspersions at my friends.

PS> …my dad is bigger than you dad.

I’m not shocked that people print their email. What I am shocked is that anyone truly living “green” is putting this in their signature file. Who cares if people print their email out as long as they RECYCLE it later!

Yeesh…

@Michael: Amen, people who are actually trying to do something good and work for a noble cause usually aren’t bragging about it, especially not in every email signature.

I’m more concerned with the environmental problems that massive deforestation and automobile pollution cause than if someone prints an email, a paper towel, or throws away an aluminum can.

I think some politicians should get together and donate a golf course to be shut down and filled to the brim with trees and lush vegetation.

They’d get my vote.

@96 Andrew - I was referring to the author, Mr. Arrington, not you. It was a play on the title of this article.

Glad to see I’m not the only person that gets unreasonably bent out of shape in public from time to time.

What I find much more annoying is getting an email with a press release that has a footer saying this email is confidential, and other variations on “not for public consumption”, even though they send me that email with the express purpose of posting it on a press release site I run.

But I post it anyway though I don’t print out my emails!

Your print posts is sponsored by Sun.

Ok… after more than a hundred replies I missed the point. So, should I print it or not?

Every now and then, Michael writes something insightful and worthwhile.
This was not one of those times.

Actually this add on damage the environment much more than you think. Just add the cost of extra storage required to store this image for all billion of emails that include this image and you find out that there is a major impact on the environment.

Mike, I can’t tell if your serious about govt. mandates being the best “solutions.” There are so many people that seriously believe that all decisions should be decided by a couple of blokes in DC and passed down to us, it’s hard to know if you were joking or not.

Michael, I am amazed at how self righteous and arrogant you sound on this topic. I dont see what harm did the person cause me by putting that line at the end of the email - it is not a personal judgement against me. If that person’s email is worth opening (over 50% of email I receive is never opened by me), I think that one line is a non-issue, whether or not it saves the planet.

Just like no one prints emails, no one cares to read such pointless rant on Techcrunch.

See the big picture:
Rockefeller’s Political Agenda: On the birth of the Concept of Global Warming

“In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill … All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behaviour that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself.”

— in The First Global Revolution, pp.104-105 by Alexander King, founder of the Club of Rome and Bertrand Schneider, secretary of the Club of Rome

The Club of Rome is the Elite Think Tank behind Zero Growth, Sustainable Development and Global Warming. Many Rockefeller-CFR organization members like Kissinger are members of The Club of Rome

“ALL NEW (HYBRID) DIGITAL MEGA MUSIC STORE, COMING EARLY 2008″
-Sound Beast Digital Music

http://WWW.SOUNDBEAST.NET
http://WWW.SOUNDBEAST.NET

It seems like Michael got all pissy about Bono not talking to him during the last conference. Scoble got a nice shot of him however.

I use this signature in my mails. Not only in English, but in Spanish and Catalan. I think bad emails are a problem. Spam is a problem. Not a line that reminds you that we are actually facing a problem.

Wow! It’s exciting to see so many people get so riled up about this topic - good, bad, ugly, ignorant, intelligent - or otherwise. I’m sure the “if you’ve received this e-mail in error please automatically delete it…” disclaimer feels so lonely…

You are such a sell-out: preach no one prints emails/documents from the web - then encourage people to print! Such a sell-out! How do you wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and live with yourself?

right fucking on. in fact, i’d go even further, and say that shit like this ACTIVELY contributes to the problem, because it diverts attention from making REAL progress in other areas.

however, i have one problem with your comment:
>>What matters is that our governments make the right policies and hold us, particularly corporations, accountable

while i sort of agree with that, i’d actually prefer that both public & private actors work on market methods & instruments that value our “green” interests in hard economics, and then let the markets do most of the work for us.

i understand why & where governments can play a positive role in this, but the real challenge is to securitize the biological & environmental interests we have (ACCURATELY), and then let profit-maximization operate to our collective benefit.

note that i’m NOT advocating “double- or triple-bottom-line” mumbo-jumbo here, rather i’m talking about creating REAL financial asset classes and capital markets for things like microfinance, property markets, and creating similar ones for other systems that have an impact on human existence.

for more on this topic, see my posts on Securitizing Happiness here:
http://500hats.typepad.com/500.....t_on_.html

- dave mcclure

Christ Arrington, Are you drunk??

This site was so much better when it actually reported news and wasn’t a soap box for your personal musings. The writing is sloppy, the focus seems to be more on events and I am less and less relying on this site as a reliable source for tech news.

Since around 9:13 PM last night we have been tracking an alarming increase in smug originating at the TechCrunch servers. It seems that vast quantities of smug have been piped directly to the servers where they are causing deterioration in the ozone layer directly above the TechCrunch servers at an alarming level.

It looked like the deterioration was leveling out until around 7:35, which is conincidentally when post number 90 was written, and things took a turn for the worse. Much worse.

We are also investigating a marked increase in manbearpig sightings, which has slowed emergency response to the TechCrunch servers. We simply can’t risk emergency worker lives until we know the area is clear of manbearpig and all workers can work out of harm’s way.

@Andrew J Scott - yeah, you’re right. We do use emails (!) and Basecamp. We are also buried in work and some silly clients so it’s more a case of printing the emails so that staff that don’t really want to do the work can’t get away from me pointing out the to do list on their desk.

Mean? Yes. Only until we get rid of the silly clients - which I’m working on. From then on it will be nice clients who will use Basecamp and the only paper we’ll receive from them will be their cheques.

to ““Please don’t print this comment unless you need to””

please stfu and go away

michael: this was the funniest (and therefore best) post I’ve seen on this site. I think you and I could be good friends. But Duncan would need to go.

“Last week at Davos, Earth defender Al Gore himself made it clear that personal choice decisions at the individual level have little to do with helping the environment.”

That’s a ridiculous statement. Decisions at the individual level do make a difference. Also, everyone should seriously think about how their lifestyles affect the environment. If every individual decides to print every single email…

Mike, have you ever visited the rain forests of Brazil?

From your first green rant, Google and Yahoo aren’t the only ones participating in the green arms race… Intel made an announcement this week about its enormous purchase of renewable energy, making it the largest renewable energy user in the US. That is a big enough move to make some serious waves.

http://blogs.intel.com/csr/200....._green.php

As for emails, I have been meaning to add my own sarcastic version of these stupid signatures.

Actually, Green Bashing is “all the rage right now”, in the US, and its been that way for a generation. Evidence your “weekend rant” and the majority ‘give the greenies hell’ responses. Its like feeding meat to lions. You know they will bite… often and hard (with extra macho-points for snarling ‘ripping-action’ displays).

Truth is the message of your rant began as a “corporate responsobility’ initiative. Why? ….

6. Per capita consumption of paper in the US is currently over 748lbs.

7. Developing nations, India and China, with their combined 2 billion inhabitants, consume less that 25 lbs. of paper per capita.

8. Paper consumption has increased six-fold over the past 50 years.

9. Paper and packaging waste make up over 40% of North American solid waste landfill.

10. Every pound of waste that business generates, whether it is toxic or not, is a drain on profitability, productivity and environmental performance.

© Copyright 2004 MDF Systems
http://www.mdfsystems.com/artm.....e_42.shtml
(MDF does printing for biz clients)

Now a Greenie would be talking about the clorine used to bleach paper white…. and its impact on water purity, wildlife and your sperm count.

BTW, check-out what Tom Friedman says about makiing Green a Sissy thing (click name to see vid on towncrier.tv).

Some interesting points, but I think the green message does help raise awareness!

Here in South Africa, paper manufacturers are _the_ biggest polluters if you look at the cradle-to-grave process.

Btw, would you mind sharing some stats about how many people use the subliminal HP sponsored (?$) Print buttons on your blog posts?

Completely rubbish post. Almost everyone above 40 at my office print most of th