< Wrong Thought, Wrong Action / >

The September retail issue of Esquire will feature a battery-operated 'e-ink' animated/digitized cover flashing the words, "The 21st Century Begins Now." As the New York Times and Discovery Network's Treehugger blog have already noted, this means that 100,000 custom wafer-thin batteries will be headed for landfills as e-waste, and that the manufacturing and shipment of the digital cover involve a size-150 (tons) carbon footprint and "a 16% increase over the carbon footprint of a typical print publication."

Why? China, Mexico, and refrigerated delivery trucks, to start.

Clearly, this little cover is a big undertaking, and a pricey one. So who has driven in to underwrite the cost? None other than Ford Motor Company, which just announced an eight billion dollar loss for the second quarter 2008. Not to worry, though; Ford will "defray the outlandish expense with an advertisement on the inside of the cover showing the new Ford minivan/ sport utility vehicle, the Flex, moving across the page."

Well, great. The Flex, on dealer lots now, was first revealed to the public as the Fairlane Concept in 2005 — when oil was trading at $50 a barrel. The 2009 final version of that design rolls into showrooms with a fuel economy rating of only 16 mpg city, with oil having tripled in cost. In fairness, though, according to a team of Newsweek auto reviewers, the gas-guzzling Hummer H2 gets a meager 8 mpg city, making the Flex a clearly better investment with double the fuel savings and carbon output reduction. That is, if you happen to find anything less than 24 mpg acceptable for city errands. For its part, Ford finds it best to simply avoid the whole issue of usefulness and affordability. According to body designer J Mays, the new SUV "has the power to move people emotionally as well as physically" because it "has been created for people who know it's the journey – not the destination – that matters most."

Actually, it's life and health and survival in a sustainable future that matter most, but Ford has only begun its long and painful journey toward that realization.
.