Slashdot Mirror
Dell Offers Virtual Saplings For Earth Day
theodp writes "The expansion of Dell's Plant a Tree for Me program into Second Life has the Silicon Valley Sleuth wondering if this represents a new low in Earth Day marketing tie-ins. You may wonder, too, after reading Dell's invitation to its Earth Day Party at Dell Island in SL ('get your own tree sapling to plant in Second Life!')."
Actually, Dell's environmental initiatives are quite laudable:
Is Dell the brand for EcoGeeks?This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
McDonalds has real saplings in Minnesota for free on Earth Day.
Did you know that twice as much wood is grown in Minnesota compared to harvesting?
Not exactly. While that law is on the books in some places I do not believe that it is fully national. Moreover it encodes a rather incorrect understanding of the way things work. Firstly 1 old-growth redwood != 2 saplings. So the net impact is not balanced out and if we kill old trees faster than the new ones can grow then we will still have a destructive impact.
Seconslu the costs to the environment is not entirely about the trees, there is the brush and underbrsh, the animals, etc all of which are displaced. And they cannot easily move to wherever the new trees are planted.
Note that while I laud the idea of planting trees, a viable forest with treesu, underbrush, animal and vegetable life != an orderly arbor of young saplings with no secondary plants.