Apple's iPhone event and the Mother Nature bit are still showing up in my feeds, so a few more thoughts.

This ifixit piece touches on part of it, but omits the the biggest problem.

Our economic model must change, to make manufacturers responsible for the complete lifecycle of their products. That means pricing in the cost of "disposal."

The environmental harm our economic model has been causing by failing to capture externalities now threatens our global civilization, and you know what I think our chances are about that.

But if we are to do everything we can, because it's the right thing to do, it's what we owe our children, regardless of the outcome, we need to come to grips with true cost of products and services.

We have robbed from the future to enjoy the luxuries we have today. We have to change that. We have made a tiny minority obscenely rich by stealing from our children.

It's not truly a "free market" if some players are immune to the consequences of their actions. Are given a license to profit at the expense of our planet and our children's future.

This will be a difficult conversation to have, and more difficult to implement. And we must ensure that, if we do this, the greatest burden doesn't fall on those least able to bear it.

It will mean sacrifice, inconvenience, wholesale changes to our "lifestyles." An entirely different perspective on "capitalism" and "consumerism" and material "happiness."

I'm not optimistic that we can meet this challenge, which is part of my pessimism on our civilization's chances.

But if we're going to talk about things like "corporate responsibility," we ought to be speaking about the whole truth, not just nibbling around the edges. Confronting the hard truths, and not hiding behind clever videos and snappy dialog.

It'll take courage, and that's something of a scarce commodity these days.