Amazon encourages its customers to buy green 2

Ah, Earth Day. What could be a better way to celebrate our planet than buying more stuff and then having it shipped halfway across the country?

Regardless of what you may think of the online behemoth, Amazon.com should get some credit for prominently promoting its Earth Day store on its home page for the last week. And if their customers are going to buy things, it might as well be green things, right?

In their "10 Ways You Can Help the Environment" they suggest buying CFLs (of course), a bike, a programmable digital tire gauge (for better fuel efficiency), a battery recharger and rechargeable batteries, and the must-have for every eco-shopper: a canvas bag. There's more, but no where near as comprehensive as the Grist store (powered by, ahem, Amazon.com), where your favorite online environmental news site earns a percentage of every purchase.

Amazon has also begun tagging some of their blog posts with "Green Life" and "Healthnut" and have been writing about Grist's Earth Day dinners article, CFLs (again), green PCs, and organic chocolate. And Doug informs us that for each purchase of An Inconvenient Truth on Earth Day, one school in the U.S. or Canada will get a copy donated. (But will they be able to watch it?)

But if you really want to be green and buy a DVD, check out Amazon's Unbox Video Download service, which allows you to buy or rent from a large assortment of movies and TV shows, and watch them on your computer (legally), including: An Inconvenient Truth, Who Killed the Electric Car? and Fast Food Nation.

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