“Apple Inc. is pulling out of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of the chamber’s strident criticism of plans to reduce U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, the computer giant said Monday,” David A. Fahrenthold reports for The Washington Post.
“In a letter to the chamber of commerce’s president, Apple vice president Catherine Novelli wrote that ‘Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the Chamber at odds with us in this effort.’ As a result, Novelli said, ‘we have decided to resign our membership effective immediately,'” Fahrenthold reports.
“Last week, the group’s president, Thomas J. Donohue, said in a statement that his group supports ‘strong federal legislation’ to protect the climate. But he said legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives — which would use a ‘cap and trade’ system to lower the cost of reducing emissions — was flawed because it does not require other polluting countries to act, and does too little to spur U.S. investment in green technologies,” Fahrenthold reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Green is the new black. In other words, being perceived as “green” is good for Apple’s business; so good, evidently, that they don’t mind looking like they back a sham.
Note: We support the wise regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
1) the Kyoto Agreement is not going to solve global warming or climate change.
2) any Agreement that does not include China and its effect on the global economy or climate is not worth the paper it is written on. If the US is not competitive now, imagine what it would be like if we implemented new emission standards, costing billions, when the Chinese get a free pass?
3) did you know the Chinese didn’t sign the Kyoto Agreement either?
@Rob
Steve Jobs’ success cannot be attributed to his world-view. Apple has succeeded in a capitalist environment, independent of the founder’s political view. Apple has been run as a cut-throat U.S. industry leader which is only allow to thrive in a capitalist economy. I applaud Apple Inc for their green initiative because it is a business move based on public perception and marketing, not saving the planet. Once those kind of moves become mandated, Apple Inc will no longer have a marketing advantage.
If you want to bring about change, you need a catalyzing event. Band-aid agreements will only slow down things, and ultimately delay change. As there is no current approach to climate change that involves practical changes to human behavior – and going back to caveman levels of carbon use is not practical – then the only viable approach is an engineered solution. Something like emulating volcano ash in the atmosphere to slow and reverse global warming is going to work that is politically viable.
Twilightmoon and Randian are both correct. Even if you believe CO2 is the Earth’s major threat, or you believe that Man’s activities are the primary cause of changes in CO2, or you believe that Man’s actions can significantly lower the CO2 in the atmosphere, you have to be intellectually honest enough to recognize any throttles placed on processes that create CO2 have to be accepted by all countries, and the burdens created must be shared by all peoples of the world that also contribute to the perceived problem. Until I see China, India and other industrialized countries accepting the same emission controls, I will consider most of this push for action on our part as a concerted effort to damage the U.S. rather than save the Earth.
Steve Jobs’ success cannot be attributed to his world-view
LOL. I love how you wingnuts rationalize away Steve’s world view as if it’s irrelevant.
Here are some facts to chew on:
Steve Jobs is brilliant. He is also liberal.
There is a positive correlation between amount of education and liberalism.
Maybe smart people know something you wingnuts don’t?
“So I guess any legislation that the US Congress passes that only has affect inside the US is a “sham”?”
Not all dogs are poodles.
I wonder what strict emission standards Apple’s Chinese manufacturers are held to. Just sayin’…
I applaud the CoC for taking a stand against Cap & Tax.
@Hueylong-
I bet the lives of my grandchildren every time I fire up the backyard firepit while cursing Al Gore. No worries.
Bring on the Global Warming- I like hot weather.
S
And Rob:
You’re an asset to your self-proclaimed affiliation by declaring everyone right of center to be a “wingnut”.
Fsck yourself. Seriously.
It is a shame that MDN believes the stupidity of the Wall Street Journal. Why would you not believe the overwhelming scientific evidence of global warming? I would rather take a chance that they are right then believe the radical few who would allow the world to become uninhabitable! I may have to stop reading your web site because I do not want to contribute to the world of ignorance and fear.
Why is it that American companies that commit most of their polluting in places like China are so willing to support Cap & Trade?
HMMMMMM!
Gore needs to be shitcanned from Board Of Directors.
“There is a positive correlation between amount of education and liberalism.”
Uh, dude, your elitist propagation is showing…..
@theloniousMac
I had the same thought. This action by Apple is simply PR. It costs Apple nothing and has NO financial impact, while adding a little polish to the environmentalist image that they have been pursuing for the last several years.
There is NO EVIDENCE of man made climate change, which is not to say that there isn’t air pollution that causes health problems in some places. However, with Al Gore on the board, anything goes, no matter how much evidence to the contrary, such as that sunspots cause temperature variations, etc.
Apple Inc. has gone off the rails on this issue: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has it absolutely right. However, all over the world politicians are busy fighting the last war, as in building debt to create future chaos but achieve short term political gain while they are in office. It all depends on the greater fool theory. H. L. Mencken: “For every complex problem there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong.” OR “Ignorance is bliss but stupidity is terminal. …
@ MacAdvocate
You’re an asset to your self-proclaimed affiliation by declaring everyone right of center to be a “wingnut”.
Show me precisely where I declared “everyone right of center” to be a wingnut.
Oops, you can’t because I said no such thing.
Uh, dude, your elitist propagation is showing…..
LOL. What does that even mean? Did you mean “propaganda”? Sorry, but it’s fact.
“The positive relationship between higher levels of educational attainment and social and political liberalism (especially tolerance) has been one of the most stable and consistent findings in empirical social research of contemporary American society.”
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2095433
Also, scientists are overwhelmingly liberal.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/science-has-a-well-known-liberal-bias/?apage=5
@ hairytales
There is NO EVIDENCE of man made climate change
Wrong. There is overwhelming evidence.
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr.pdf
I am a business owner, real estate developer and a supporter of our local chamber of commerce (spoke at one of their meetings just last week). I have contributed to the campaigns of Republican candidates for governor and for president.
I also happen to believe that climate change and limiting greenhouse gases are issues that we need to face right now, and I am tired of all the excuses for not doing so. I especially hate the “if other countries aren’t going to do it, we shouldn’t do it” rationalization for inaction.
Last year, after driving five different BMWs over 15 years, I turned in my last one and got a Honda Fit. As I have told many friends who were surprised by my choice, we have got to lower our consumption of fossil fuels in this country, and I figure that begins with me. I can’t change all those folks who insist on driving huge trucks and SUVs, but I can change what I do. And I have.
I agree with the chamber on this one
That pull-out sure was snappy.
A MDN’s position I totally agree with – although calling global warming a “sham” may be a bit to tame. How about BIG LIE!
As with too many other hotly debated issues, somehow the extremists on both sides have been allowed to define the debate. Those of us more or less in the middle (let’s keep pushing towards being more environmentally-minded, but not at the cost of tanking our economy or driving our businesses overseas) are apparently left without enough sane voices to represent us. Gotta love the two-party system.
The climate-change issue is unfortunately abused by special interests in much the same way Microsoft uses FUD. To many biased forces, on both sides, result in “science” which is anything but.
As Ralph M pointed out, the best thing we can do is take responsibility for our own actions. Apple, in pushing to make their own products greener, is doing already the same thing on a corporate level.
I would greatly prefer if we, as individuals and as a country, would focus on the things that we CAN control (our own actions), instead of the things we CAN’T control (the weather).
“LOL. What does that even mean?”
It means that even though you can afford court-side tickets,
you’re still not a player.
Ahh, the record cold temps sure make me think of global warming.
How that sun spot pattern doing?
CO2 or water vapor in the air? Which one is more significant.
Greenpeace lied? Ask them about the Arctic ice.
Volcanoes or automobiles, hmmm?
Oh and that really big warming trend, back before cars, factories and the whole industrial revolution thing. What about that?
Don’t forget that other planets are having issues with their ice melting. Must be that long range CO2 making it to Mars.
Cap & Trade is nothing but a money/power grab to screw the little people.
I’m all for reducing the real pollutants like plastic, synthetics and fertilisers that interfere with life and choke the oceans. But I can’t abide this New Age religion that posits Earth as some kind of wrathful god hellbent on destroying the evil humans.
Sounds funny until you read about all the forced sterilisations in Africa and people being forced to labour without electricity or modern technology in the third world because rich lobbyists convince banks not to lend money to them.
The Green movement, complete with their adopted scientist rent-a-crowd, is anti-human and anti-development. Apple is the opposite of Green to me… rational, innovative, inspiring.