Earth Day Campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason no. 16

We continue with our Earth Day campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers in celebration of the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day!

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we publish here the 41 best replies we receive, one reply a day. All replies are gathered and presented on the Earth Day 2011page.

Reason no. 16:

I strive to personally live by this old fashioned rule: When I bring a new item into my home, I try to donate a gently used item to someone in need. The same principle can be applied to books. Every time you bring a new book into your home, make sure to donate dollars so a new tree may be planted to replace the tree that was used to manufacture the pages of the book. Easy! -Laura Theodore, The Jazzy Vegetarian and author of the book "Vegetarian Cooking for Every Day"

Thank you Laura for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your books!

We want to mention again the great prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, Left Neglected by Lisa Genova and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, Spit That Out! by Paige Wolf, Menu Dating by Tristan Coopersmith and The Healthy Home by Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.


Every day we'll give further details on one of the prizes. Today we present you with the book Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg.

Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg - Our relationship with the ocean is undergoing a profound transformation. Whereas just three decades ago nearly everything we ate from the sea was wild, rampant overfishing combined with an unprecedented bio-tech revolution has brought us to a point where wild and farmed fish occupy equal parts of a complex and confusing marketplace. We stand at the edge of a cataclysm; there is a distinct possibility that our children's children will never eat a wild fish that has swum freely in the sea.

In Four Fish, award-winning writer and lifelong fisherman Paul Greenberg takes us on a culinary journey, exploring the history of the fish that dominate our menus---salmon, sea bass, cod and tuna-and examining where each stands at this critical moment in time. He visits Norwegian mega farms that use genetic techniques once pioneered on sheep to grow millions of pounds of salmon a year. He travels to the ancestral river of the Yupik Eskimos to see the only Fair Trade certified fishing company in the world. He investigates the way PCBs and mercury find their way into seafood; discovers how Mediterranean sea bass went global; Challenges the author of Cod to taste the difference between a farmed and a wild cod; and almost sinks to the bottom of the South Pacific while searching for an alternative to endangered bluefin tuna.

Fish, Greenberg reveals, are the last truly wild food - for now. By examining the forces that get fish to our dinner tables, he shows how we can start to heal the oceans and fight for a world where healthy and sustainable seafood is the rule rather than the exception.

We still have some spots available so please send us your reply to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Doesn't it make you mad to hear that Borders wants to pay $8.3 million in bonuses to the same executives that got it into trouble?

I know it makes me mad.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Borders "is seeking bankruptcy court approval to hand out as much as $8.3 million in executive bonuses, including nearly $1.7 million to President Mike Edwards."

Who will get the bonuses? "A number of key members of the management team have been put in place or in their positions within the last year. This management team has been fully focused on repositioning Borders to have the potential to be successful for the long term," said company spokeswoman Mary Davis.

According to the WSJ "Seventeen top executives are covered by the largest program, which could add as much as $7.1 million to the pay packets of leaders who stick with the company in bankruptcy. Court papers say 70% of the group have been with the company less than 18 months, and many joined Borders less than a year ago. A second $1.2 million bonus program covers 25 "director-level" managers "critical to the debtors' reorganization and to ongoing business," court papers say"

Makes sense? Not to me. Why should the same executives who brought Borders to bankruptcy get rewarded? I understand that the executives play an important role in the recovery of Borders, but didn't they also play an important role in its failure?

What's the incentive to succeed when you get your bonus anyway? And does it seem appropriate to these executives to receive these bonuses while more than 200 stores are closed and so many employees at Borders are losing now their jobs?

On UPI.com, Industry analysts Michael Norris is quoted saying that "retaining key staff members was an important goal. Concerning bonus pay, "If it keeps their best people from heading to the exits, a retention bonus is a great idea," Norris said."

Well, I have to say to Norris that if these are the best people Borders have they're in trouble. And second, maybe these executives will stay, but what about all the customers that won't think it's such a great idea and will prefer to buy in bookstores where fairness and sensibility play a greater role??

What do you think? I'll be happy to hear your thoughts.

You can find more news and updates on the future of Borders following their bankruptcy at www.ecolibris.net/borders.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!