November 5, 2010

Don’t Blame Canada

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I lamented the demise of the eco-friendly SunChips bag last month, a relatively trivial issue but one that I think is indicative of chip-eating Americans’ unwillingness to accept even the slightest discomfort for the good of the environment. The noisy bags were simply too much for us to bear, leading Frito Lay to bag the bags. But it looks like our neighbors to the north are keeping them.

The company’s Canadian division posted this public service announcement from sustainability chief Helmi Ansari letting citizens know they are keeping the compostable bags up north. It seems Canucks are OK with “a little more noise for a little less waste.”

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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