Color me a cynic, but I have a hard time feeling the sincerity in Steve Jobs' promise to make Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) a more environmentally friendly business, with initiatives like eliminating certain toxic substances from its products and promoting recycling. Jobs issued a five-page memo discussing the new, greener Apple.

If this announcement had come a year ago, in a time when Apple wasn't in the midst of an options-backdating scandal with accusations flying all the way up to Mr. Jobs, I'd applaud the company's efforts. In a way, I still do. But it also seems like a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from governance scandals surrounding the company.

Portfolio.com wrote that, "As Home Depot and Wal-Mart have recently discovered, announcing green initiatives in the face of bad news is a great way to divert media attention from things like $100 million CEO pay packages and ongoing battles over worker wages and benefits."

The magazine also points out that Al Gore's presence on the board of directors may have contributed to the decision, although Gore recently backed the board in opposing shareholder proposals that would have called for more stringent environmental standards at the company.

At a National Association of Pension Funds conference in Edinburgh, former Vice President Al Gore warned of the dangers of having a short-term outlook in investing. He actually sounds a bit like Warren Buffett in some of his remarks. To wit:

"If you want management according to long-term horizons but you incentivise on a quarterly basis, will you be surprised if performance is maximised on a quarterly basis and if there is a tension between meeting targets and long-term objectives?''

"Eighty per cent of a firm's value builds up over a business cycle and a half, so if you are buying equities then selling them a few months later, clearly the aim is not to participate in the build-up of value."

While Mr. Gore certainly makes some good points about the importance of keeping the focus long-term, I came across another way of looking at in a book called The Best Investment Advice I Ever Received. Author Roger McNamee writes: "You should view the long term as a consistently infinite series of short terms. You cannot be successful in the long run without being successful most of the time in the short run."'

Oftentimes, the pursuit of short-term profits is also best accomplished through short-term results, including selling off assets or similar strategies advocated by much-maligned "corporate raiders" like Carl Icahn, who said that "We're not about liquidating companies, but if you do that, why is that terrible? We're not blowing up the factories. The person who buys it should be able to make the asset more productive."

While investors should certainly focus on buying and holding equities for the long-term, as Al Gore suggested, I think that an emphasis on short-term results can often be positive for companies themselves. A company that generates value in the short run is well on its way to strong long term results.

This morning's Wall Street Journal, the one shaped like a Holiday Inn bath towel (I'll call it the Towel), breached the separation between the news and editorial pages by keeping the biggest news story of the day off of its front page. The Towel should have plastered the front page with a deep analysis of the wide ranging implications of Apple Computer, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. But I think the editorial page editors' rage at Al Gore and Steve Jobs kept that from happening.

To be fair, the Towel did have many stories about the iPhone. Apple Storms Cellphone Field [subscription required] graced page A3. Apple Shines Tech Shares As Stocks Sag led on page C1; Apple May Justify Hype trailed on C14; and Apple's iPhone: Is It Worth It? filled out much of page D1. This is quite a bit of coverage for Apple -- but I can't imagine why it decided to lead with a story on how Towel publisher, Dow Jones & Company Inc.'s (NYSE: DJ) competitors are trying to sell national advertisements through a joint venture with Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO).

These stories are besides the point. The real action in the Apple coverage is on the Towel's editorial page. Apple's Gore was Holman Jenkins's pointless rumination on his internal conflicts about the success of Apple's business, his unspoken frustration about how Democrats Al Gore and Steve Jobs are benefiting from it, and his angst that the backdating scandal -- which he feels is much ado about nothing -- has left Jobs unscathed. And Should Steve Jobs Go To Jail? hints that just as Jobs got off for backdating, so should the authors' client, Brocade Communications Systems Inc.'s (NASDAQ: BRCD) former CEO, Gregory Reyes.

The irony of this is that publisher, Gordon Crovitz, recently crowed about how Towel reporters uncovered the backdating scandal last year. But I guess the Towel couldn't decide how to handle all the internal conflict created by Apple's iPhone announcement. As a result, the Towel's dirty laundry kept it from plastering the front page with what could turn out to be one of the biggest business stories of 2007.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm, and a Professor of Management at Babson College. He subscribes to the Wall Street Journal but doesn't have any financial interest in Apple, Brocade, Dow Jones, or Yahoo.

Following on Brian White's coverage last week of Al Gore's pending visit to Wal-Mart HQ today on the topic of Global Warming is an AP article on some of Wal-Mart's recent eco-friendly efforts.

Wal-Mart's official estimate of the amount of carbon dioxide it emits was roughly 20.8 million metric tons. To put that in perspective, Coca-Cola emits about 5 million metric tons and American Electric Power emits around 160 million metric tons.

Wal-Mart has been the target of various environmental groups for it eco-practices or lack thereof.

Ahead of Al Gore's visit today on his Anti-Global Warming campaign, Wal-mart officials have been clamoring to highlight results they have achieved since CEO Lee Scott launched the official Wal-Mart "good steward for the environment" campaign last October as well as initiatives the company plans on launching.

What would Al Gore be doing in Bentonville soon, according to blog posts and reports? Well, he would be there to talk with Wal-Mart executives about global issues such as environmental sustainability and ensuring Wal-Mart knows the best methods to minimize its negative impact on the environment through any and all channels possible.

With Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott recently saying that Wal-Mart is deeply committed to greening up the company though all kinds of methods, they definitely can take some insight from An Inconvenient Truth movie maker and recent presidential candidate Al Gore.

Although there are some that believe Wal-Mart's green attitude and initiatives are nothing more than window dressing or are geared to save the company money rather than assist the sustainability of the global environment, Wal-Mart's efforts at least should heed ears from all sides.