Well, my silly little piece on “green” email signatures is in the news again, this time in the L.A. Times. When I wrote that, it was cathartic because I was so frustrated by a particular co-worker and his sanctimonious ways, and his mindless insistence that we all preach to our clients this message that I felt went without saying. Who knew it would become the single most popular post on my website and the source for two newspaper articles on green email signatures (and a television interview that as far as I know landed on the cutting room floor)?

Of course the fact that I work in sustainable design and live in left-leaning Boulder Colorado made my frowny post on green email signatures the perfect ammo for conservative papers like the Wall Street Journal and the L.A. Times—here was a guy who supposedly cared about the environment and even he is saying these signatures are stupid! Co-workers (and strangers reaching me through my website) have accused me of being a hipocrit (sic), but I think they miss the point. These whiny, sniveling exhortations to “please consider the environment” make you look exactly like the stereotype the Fox News windbags are trying to perpetuate. I’m not playing along, and you shouldn’t either. Save that unbridled environmental enthusiasm for flipping the bird at the next Hummer you see.

Here’s a nice easy way to save some energy, set your web browser’s default home page to www.blackle.com. This website is merely a portal to the Google search engine—the search results are the same exact ones you’d get of you had searched from Google’s home page—but the page background is all black. Since it takes less energy to display a black screen on a monitor than a white one, the general idea is that the thousands upon thousands of people that hit Google daily will save a trickle of electricity every time they visit Google this way. The reality is that this only holds true for the older CRT computer monitors; those using LCD monitors or laptops are not saving any energy with Blackle. However, the wihte-on-black color scheme is easier on the eyes, and all those using CRTs can feel that smug pride that all the Prius owners radiate, while surfing the web for your porn. So, check it out either way!

Check it out, at www.blackle.com

Well, what the hell do you know. One of my little old blog posts has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal!

Something tells me that a lot of WSJ readers who may ultimately ferret out my website will not be entertained by the majority of my content, however…

Most likely by now you have heard about the idea of “carbon neutrality”, which is a happy state wherein you can say that your day-to-day existence is not resulting in any adverse affects on the environment, because your carbon emissions have been “offset” through good old fashioned moolah. You emit, so you buy these offsets, and some company supposedly plants a tree and viola, it’s as if your Hummer runs on water. Sound like crap? It is. And some very funny peopple have put up a very funny satire of the whole sham. Cheat Neutral is looking to help you feel less guilty about cheating on your partner by selling “cheat offsets”:

Cheatneutral is about offsetting infidelity. We’re the only people doing it, and Cheatneutral is a joke.

Carbon offsetting is about paying for the right to carry on emitting carbon. The Carbon offset industry sold £60 million of offsets last year, and is rapidly growing. Carbon offsetting is also a joke.

“But Rob, don’t you work in sustainable design? Aren’t you all for reducing the impact on climate change?” Well, yeah, I guess I am these days. That’s why I think setting up corporations that take your money and trade on the future of this dubious practice of washing away a climate sin with some greenbacks does nothing to change the habits or tendencies of the people causing the problem.

After having a laugh at Cheat Neutral, swing over to Carbon Trade Watch for more straight info on this little bit of nonsense called carbon offsets.

Working for a sustainable design consultant, as I do, I am continually exposed to exciting and interesting individuals with progressive views and ideas. The climate change crisis is real, and I’m excited to be helping in some small way to affect architectural design in a positive and sustainable way. But the sustainable message is bubbling over into my colleagues’ email signatures, as evidenced by a recent email, which carried the following message after the author’s signoff:

“please consider the environment before printing this message.”

What a great idea, to follow every email message with a smug, self-satisfied, holier-than-thou little dig at your own client, I thought! That’s not condescending at all! So this evening I sat down to draft my very own “green email signature”. I’m very excited about my drafts so far:

• Like, don’t print this, OK?


• Printing this message kills trees. Print is murder!


• Please consider filing this email in an email folder and refraining from printing it, since that would be redundant and a waste of space, time and paper. Just make sure you back up your hard drive, you idiot.


• Please respond to this email as soon as possible, as I am soon unplugging all my electrical devices and moving to the woods. And this should go without saying, but you should NOT print this message, since the more you print, the less woods I will have left to live in. Again, please hurry.


• You know pal, you really should think about what you’re doing there, with your mouse cursor on the “print” button; don’t you realize that trees are a precious and beautiful resource? You already have the material, right there in front of your oil-thirsty face, in digital format. You should read it on your monitor instead of wasting precious paper to print out what you already have, you heartless bastard! I can’t believe you could be so stupid, you PAPER WASTER! Of course, by reading it on your monitor you’re running your computer which consumes about 450 watts of power while it’s running whereas you could print this out on a few sheets of paper and power down. Hmmm. Let me think about this for a second. I’ve got it! I’ll just bet you don’t do two-sided printing, thereby wasting TWICE as much paper as I do when I print things duplex (even though I almost never, ever, print things, because I am pleased to consider the environment before doing so)! Oh you climate change accelerator, you! I hate you! Yes, far better that you read this on screen, especially since you don’t have a duplex printer. Come to think of it, you should really get a duplex printer; I can’t believe you don’t have one of those! Jesus, you are a resource hogging pig! Aren’t you glad you have me to help you think about these issues? By the way, how many miles per gallon do you get with you car? You DO drive a hybrid, don’t you? Put that hamburger DOWN, dammit! LISTEN TO ME!!

The other day I signed and emailed a message to Congress calling for action to solve the climate change issues facing the planet, and sent it to Al Gore as part of his presentation in Washington. Yesterday, I got this thank you email:

Dear Rob,

Thank you!

By 10:00 AM yesterday, as I took my seat in the hearing room, an incredible 519,414 people had signed our message to Congress demanding immediate action to solve the climate crisis.

All of those boxes chock full of your messages, sitting right next to me as I testified, were a fantastic show of support and one that is already having an impact as our Representatives and Senators begin to debate solutions to the climate crisis. In fact, so many people signed our message in the 24 hours before the hearing, we are still working on printing them.

Still working on… printing them.

JFC, this is why no one takes this shit seriously, even though they really, really should. Al, do me a favor, and start walking the fucking walk. You of all people can’t afford to generate more fodder for the right wing and their oily-eyed shortsightedness and agenda, m’kay?

Besides, if all you want is a big old pile of papers as a symbolic prop, just fill a box with recycling; the right wing won’t know the difference, since it appears half those morons can’t read, anyway.