Blue Olives

The National Ad Council has teamed up with the Environmental Defense Fund to produce and air a public service campaign to educate the public about the realities of global warming and climate change. By now you should have read about this in your local paper. If you haven't, you can just Google "Ad Council Global Warming" or you can go right to the Ad Council or EDF for more information and to see the ads. I don't like the "Tick" clip, it just doesn't work--a bit heavy on the guilt-trip- through-cute-kid syndrome. But the "Train" clip is quite effective. You still get the cute kid in your face, but it says a helluva lot in 30 seconds. There are two radio pieces as well. Like "Tick," they play to a suburban sense of guilt, but the message gets across. "There's still time. Go to fightglobalwarming.com ." One very important thing to note, however, is that both radio ads refer to "greenhouse gas pollution." CO2,

Pay close attention to those piles of computers on your loading docks and in storage rooms at work, and in your garage, attics, and sheds at home. A number of proposals are popping up again about a national e-waste recycling policy. Maybe you'll be able to get rid of them (or the next batch) and feel confident they are being handled properly. The groundswell may in part be a result of Washington state's recent passage of legislation requiring the industry to implement a statewide electronics collection and recycling program beginning in 2009. The legislation establishes the Washington Materials Management and Financing Authority . Washington joins Massachusetts, California, Maryland, and Maine with such a mandate. State mandates are what happens when the federal government does not take the lead on solving problems of national scale. If a few more states get out in front on these issues the computer industry is going to begin to taste the fruits of their indecision and allegia