Get Active - Internet Activism

I received some internet activism emails today from which I am posting excerpts. The first two excerpts are from Greenpeace:

Green my Apple, Steve
Here at Greenpeace, we love our Macs. And that's why we want them to be free of toxic chemicals that create poison e-waste. We've seen the kids in Asia who wade through mountains of discarded gadgets to recover bits of metal they can sell. In the process, they breathe dioxins from burning PVC plastic and are surrounded by lead and mercury pollution. That's not what Apple is all about. And we know just the people to make Apple change its ways: its customers. Love your Mac? Wish it came in green?

Let Apple know how much you want them to be green.

I am a long time Mac user so of course I responded by sending an email to Apple.

Here's another:

Hi, my name is Sini Harkki and I would like you to help me in Finland. I'm a student and in my spare time I work to save forests in Finland and around the world. I've been working with Greenpeace helping an undercover investigation team expose wood that's been illegally logged in Russia and imported into Finland.

We are trying to make the Finnish Government take responsibility for this problem, but they've been avoiding the issue. When we told our Government about this illegal logging scandal they said that they shouldn't get involved! Wood from Russia is made into many things, like paper, cardboard for packaging, plywood and furniture - and you might even be buying it.

You can help by sending a letter to Mr Mauri Pekkarinen, Finland's Minister of Trade and Industry, asking for laws to stop illegal timber being imported and sold in Europe.

I responded to this plea as well.

I also received a forward from a friend regarding voting machines:

Dear Friend,

Paperless electronic voting machines will be used once again
this fall, and already during the primaries they failed. In
Maryland crowds of legal voters were turned away from the polls
when the machines couldn't be started.

There's a simple safeguard -- have enough paper ballots on hand
so the election can go forward even if the machines let us down
again. Obvious, right? Senators Boxer (D-CA) and Dodd (D-CT)
have introduced a last-minute bill which would provide money to
any state that is willing to print up the paper ballots. It's
cheap, it's easy, and there's no reason not to do it. But time
is short.

Join with me and TrueMajority to tell your Senator to support
the emergency paper ballot bill.
http://action.truemajority.org/campaign/paper_ballot?rk=YdwuYVS1GX4nW

It seems like a no brainer that if people show up to vote that they should be allowed to vote.

Part of my personal environmental plan is internet activism. If you are not currently active I encourage you to become active. Never before has it been so easy for the middle class of America to take part in influencing national and world politics.