As an avid supporter of the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy, we periodically receive their highly produced glossy magazines, filled with lovely photos of endangered species and threatened ecosystems.As we were finishing lunch today, we flipped through the Nature Conservancy mag that had just arrived in the mail. There were a number of tips on "going green," and some articles on endangered forests. When we finished, we dumped the magazine on our recycling pile, along with other detritus from today's mail. And then it hit us.
There's nothing green about that magazine. According to the magazine's circulation statement, more than 800,000 copies are printed up and distributed every year. The magazine is about 80 pages. So that's 64 MILLION pages of paper sent out by the Conservancy for its magazine. (We're not sure how many trees that equals--we saw one estimate on the web that an average tree could produce 100,000 pages of paper, in which case it would be 640 trees.)
The Sierra club is on a similar footing.
We like those magazines. But we'd feel a whole lot better if these and other "green" organizations found a way to deliver their content electronically--or at least give their patrons an electronic option.
1 comment:
1. Please do not be so quick to associate TNC with the Sierra Club. TNC is a conservation organization, Sierra Club is an environmental orginaztion. The difference, you have to earn the title of conservationist. As a proud TNC supporter and volunteer, I do not agree with many Sierra Club strategies (aka too many law suits).
2. So just call and ask TNC to take you off their mailing list. You can view the magazine online.
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