Greenpeace Down on Games Industry, Logic Flawed? 138
Earlier this week Greenpeace went after the games industry a bit, coming down on hardware manufacturers for poor environmental practices. Nintendo and Microsoft in particular got poor scores from the organization. Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog notes, though, that their methodology is a bit odd. It's not so much that Nintendo's environmental policies (say) are all that bad - they're just not readily available on a website. "The research in general appears lazy. Nintendo's failing grade appears to be based entirely on this entry in the corporate FAQ, which briefly summarizes some of the steps the company has taken to protect the environment. Anything that's not covered there is simply rated "No Information." Similarly, all of the information on Microsoft originates from press materials and corporate statements on the company's web site. Clearly, Greenpeace did not perform an exhaustive evaluation of chemical use through the manufacturing pipeline."
What??? (Score:5, Insightful)
What a harsh statement. It is almost as if the poster was saying that Greenpeace twists research to meet their own overall political goals.
hmm (Score:4, Insightful)
What a waste (Score:5, Insightful)
This seems to be a frequent issue with charitable organizations. Once they achieve their goal or enough business types get involved, instead of dissolving they transform into a money making operation. I guess it's just more profitable to ride the coat tails of your founders than to actually do something worth while.
Greenpeace is bad for the enviroment (Score:2, Insightful)
This is news? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What a waste (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder if there is an "Environmentalists against Greenpeace" group? I would like to join.
Greenpeace sucks. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:hmm (Score:5, Insightful)
And surely you're right. Nintendo would publicize much of its environmentalism. But greenpeace is being dishonest here. It's not as though Greepeace is going to go out of their way to learn if Nintendo is a great company. That's because, at root, greenpeace is not about the environment. It's about western style government and corporations. Greenpeace's history shows it is generally focused on government regulation and distortion of truth for political purposes.
It's not as though Nintendo is pretending it is telling you the real story on Nintendo's environmental practices. Greenpeace is pretending it is, but is not doing the work to get the truth because it knows its story is better this way. Greenpeace is the one making the claim and with the responsibility to back it up with research. With, Nintendo, we can assume it is protecting itself and that's not very deceptive or surprising, but with Greenpeace, we are essentially being lied to.
Re:hmm (Score:4, Insightful)
Unfortunately (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, you'll discover that there are a good number that really are using environmentalism as a cover for another agenda, anti-corporatism often. So they really AREN'T interested in solutions, they just want to try and find lots of problems and use that as an excuse to further their actual agenda.
Terrorism isn't the only thing that is used like this. Anything that raises alarm with people is used by those with other agendas to push them.
What makes a troll? (Score:3, Insightful)
What makes GP a troll or not is not:
If you disagree with his facts or his logic, the proper response is to post your factual corrections, criticisms of logic, and differing opinions, as you have done. This makes the discussion more interesting and informative.
Whoever modded GP troll, though, is just lashing out at someone they disagree with. 75% of the "troll" mods I see in meta-moderation are of this nature. The key to spotting real trolls is to discern the likely intent of the poster. If I'm in doubt, I give the poster the benefit of the doubt and assume that it's a legit post.
Re:What??? (Score:3, Insightful)
Greenpeace wants to force corporations to make specific promises about their environmental practices. This would make corporations vulnerable to much stronger pressure: Nintendo would suffer much greater damage if accused of outright lying to the public and lying to consumers. It doesn't mean much to most people when Greenpeace says a company isn't green enough, but most people take offense at being lied to. Plus, if a company promises to meet a certain environmental standard, people assume that the standard must be quite reasonable, probably the minimal morally decent standard. Nintendo would look very shoddy if they endorsed a standard and then failed to live up to it.
Compare this with the effects of an occasional expose, and it's easy to see that Greenpeace isn't just being lazy. They're trying to change corporate behavior in a way that has a lasting impact. And, perhaps more importantly, they're speaking in a language that corporations can understand and respect. Taking the corporate viewpoint for a second, doesn't it sound reasonable to formulate corporate standards, pledge to adhere to them, and expect to be held accountable? Doesn't that sound better than random ad-hoc drive-by shrieking denunciations (which is how executives perceive anything that references a reality external to law, shareholder demands, corporate memos, market research, etc.)?
Why, being held to one's own corporate standards is the second-best thing to not being accountable at all
Re:Maybe their logic is this (Score:3, Insightful)
And maybe Nintendo isn't guilty of anything. In which case they should reveal their policies and bask in the glow of a high ranking next year.