It might have come to your attention that a recent post was delivered entirely in black and white. Not one colour to be seen. Well, apart from on the banner. And some of the icons, and … Anyway, you might think this two-tone wonderland had something to do with the illustration included in the post (very kindly produced by my wonderfully talented friend Nicole Firth). You might also think it was because the cover of Steve Jobs’ bio, also pictured, is as colourless as an original Macintosh computer.
Well, on both accounts you’d be wrong!
This morning I stumbled across an interesting little article whilst reading a newspaper and munching on a sugar-free, gluten-free banana muffin*. That’s right, an actual newspaper. (Never mind that I had to accept cash and sexual favours to read it.)
Here is the interesting piece of news I read, much more interesting than anything that may or may not have happened between myself and the, er, salesperson:
New Evidence Shows Christmas Unsustainable
The International Colour Factory has withheld colour from recent posts hosted through popular blogging site WordPress after an overuse of its colour quota at Christmas left the company in short supply.
The CSIRO recently discovered that producing Christmas reds and greens emits more carbon than the production of all other colours combined.
Christmas 2011 saw businesses significantly increase their use of red and green merchandising, in an attempt to buck the global economic downturn and entice customers to spend money.
A spokesperson for the International Colour Factory says the company is working with environmental consultants to rethink its current business model in light of the forthcoming carbon tax, “otherwise we won’t be able to sustain business through next Christmas.”
Stop-gap measures at the company include limiting use of colour where possible, and opting for lower-carbon colours such as Straw Yellow and Burnt Umber.
Meanwhile, Senator Bob Brown announced he would be meeting with Santa next month to discuss possible changes to the official Christmas colour scheme.
“We know it’s difficult for people to part with their tradition, but we need to be living sustainably today if we want to continue traditions such as these tomorrow,” he said.
When asked whether he would change the name of The Greens, he would not comment.
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… screens without colour
like a world without screens …
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© 2012 Michael Edwards
More fancy graphics from Monsieur Michael Edwards here.
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*This is a blatant lie. I’ve never seen one of these ANYWHERE and I would probably keel over and die with overjoyment and surprise if ever I did. Do you know how hard it is to get food on the run when you have so many weird food intolerances? Who said I want to be a planner! I want to be the type of person who gets up five minutes after I arrive at work and subsists on stolen jelly beans and extra-large, full-fat, triple-shot lattes, followed by a three-cigarette lunch! Grrrrrrrr. Now where’s that fucking coffee …
