Chris Ciaccia reports for Fox News:
Despite having a seemingly cordial relationship with President Trump, Apple CEO Tim Cook reiterated one grave area of disagreement on Monday — the Paris Agreement.
Cook, along with several other tech CEOs such as Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Google’s Sundar Pichai, signed a statement that says these companies will continue to support the 2015 Paris Agreement to help counter the effects of climate change, but also position the U.S. for a new economic age.
Cook also tweeted about the letter:
Humanity has never faced a greater or more urgent threat than climate change — and it’s one we must face together. Apple will continue our work to leave the planet better than we found it and to make the tools that encourage others to do the same. https://t.co/26sTnleNep
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) December 2, 2019
The letter comes shortly after a group of Apple employees expressed their support for Cook’s efforts to lobby Trump on behalf of the company.
The survey, conducted for Fortune by anonymous workplace social network Blind, shows that 81.6 percent of the tech giant’s employees support Cook in his efforts to speak directly with Trump on issues that affect the company and help “shape policy in Apple’s favor.”
The two men have had a relationship seemingly since the start of Trump’s presidency, one that has appeared to have only grown over time.
MacDailyNews Note: The statement, verbatim:
Joint Labor Union and CEO Statement on the Paris Agreement
We the undersigned are a group of CEOs who employ more than 2 million people in the United States and union leaders who represent 12.5 million workers. Together, we know that driving progress on addressing climate change is what’s best for the economic health, jobs, and competitiveness of our companies and our country.
In 2017, many of us came together to rally behind the US’ participation in the Paris Agreement. We came together to say we are still in. Two years ago, the impacts of climbing global temperatures were clear. Today, with record temperatures across the country, fiercer hurricanes pummeling coasts, more destructive wildfires, droughts and flooding disrupting the economy, we have no time to waste.
Two years ago, we knew that supporting the Paris Agreement was what was needed to help keep companies competitive and thriving under the shifting expectations of Americans. We stand with the 77% of registered American voters and over 4,000 American states, cities and businesses supporting the Paris Agreement.
Today, we stand by our conviction that a commitment to the Paris Agreement requires a just transition of the workforce—one that respects labor rights and is achieved through dialogue with workers and their unions. Participation in the Paris Agreement enables us to plan for a just transition and create new decent, family-supporting jobs and economic opportunity.
Staying in the Paris Agreement will strengthen our competitiveness in global markets, positioning the United States to lead the deployment of new technologies that support the transition, provide for our workers and communities, and create jobs and companies built to last.
It also supports investment by setting clear goals which enable long-term planning. It encourages innovation to achieve emissions reductions at low cost.
There has been progress, but not enough. This moment calls for greater, more accelerated action than we’ve seen. It calls for the strong policy framework the Paris Agreement provides, one that allows the US the freedom to choose our own path to emissions reductions.
The promise of the Paris Agreement is one of a just and prosperous world. We urge the United States to join us in staying in.
Sincerely,
Stuart Appelbaum, Executive Council & Chair of International Committee, AFL-CIO
…
Tim Cook, CEO, Apple
See the other signatories here.
The “Paris Agreement” is a scam. Tim Cook is a gullible fool (or he has ulterior motives).
Even the most ardent environmental activists admit that the Paris Agreement hasn’t come close to “solving” the problem of climate change. They should actually be thanking President Trump for being the first to announce that it doesn’t work and ending this farce.
The Paris Agreement has always been a giant exercise in symbolism over substance. Even if all of the countries (including the U.S.) met their Paris pledges, warming is projected to hit 3.0 degrees Celsius—well beyond the “safe” levels of either 1.5 or at most 2.0 degrees, which are the now-fashionable targets.
What’s worse, the figure also shows that the actual policies now in place will yield projected warming of 3.3 degrees Celsius, because it’s easier to promise to do something than to actually do it.
The only reason so many countries signed up for Paris is that the pledges were non-binding, and beyond that, in many cases the pledges were virtually meaningless.
The Paris Agreement does next to nothing in terms of binding the signatories to take action on limiting emissions. The chief legal obligation is contributing to a $100 billion “green fund” for developing nations. It’s a poorly veiled way to extract money from the haves and redistribute it to the have nots. Would-be Robin Hood Obama didn’t bother sending the accord to the Senate for ratification either, knowing what its fate would be. President Trump killed it because it’s something the U.S. Congress should ratify, not the president.
In every meaningful way, the document is merely hortatory.
It is, however, better than nothing. “Nothing” seems to be official US policy.
Then how is the US outperforming most others on reducing emissions? Technology and open markets solve problems…not governments. It’s all about raising and redistributing money. SCAM ALERT
Is Cook really that stupid or does he have other reasons for backing the Paris Agreement FARCE?
You either believe in science or you don’t.
Since you’re reading an Apple website, I’m guessing you believe in computers and electronics and, you know, science stuff. Well, when virtually all climate scientists are now screaming that we are going to screw up the environment if we continue to dump CO2 into the atmosphere, I listen.
Because it’s science. And if you believe any of it, you need to believe all of it.
People who STILL deny the link between atmospheric CO2 and the warming of the planet are like the flat earth people — it’s a matter of willful deniability. Future generations will wonder what the f— we were thinking when we sat by and did nothing for two generations while the arctic thawed and the glaciers melted and the seas warmed and the planet cooked (no pun intended).
I am still waiting for the ARMAGEDON from the last 10 years and we are done climate prediction. Did not Al Gore used the latest super duper computer models and state of the art scientific prognostication methods? Hey, nothing happened! Amazing! It turns out that CO2, the trace gas that makes our world a beautiful green as plants feed off it, is barely .03% of the atmospheric content. And considering that termites alone produce more CO2 than all of humanity …what difference does man’s produced CO2 makes?
The difference maker driving climate change is the Sun! The SUN!!! Get it. That is why it is hotter during the day than during the night; that is why it’s hotter and windier during the Summer than during the Winter. The Sun is what makes the climate …change!
Then why are temperatures continuing to rise during a solar minimum?
Yes it is the SUN, we get it. That’s what heats the earth. Thanks Dr. Obvious for that valuable lesson in climate science. Normally for the last few hundred thousand years or so years the level of greenhouse gasses (Like Co2) has been low and pretty much constant and the SUN’s warmth was reflected back into space. There were even a few ice ages in there because the planet was cool. As levels of greenhouse gasses rise and the SUN’s warmth is trapped, like in a greenhouse, and global temperatures rise. (They are called greenhouse gasses for an obvious reason.)
Which is what is happening. That’s why the last 5 years have been the hottest ever recorded. It is getting worse, ice is melting at an unprecedented rate which is not only affecting sea levels but major ocean currents like the Gulf Stream which is how the planet helps cool the oceans. As these currents slow down global weather is severely affected. Ask Europe how their winters are going.
Climate is incredibly complicated yet people like yourself seem to think it can be condensed down into a meme. Sorry ARMAGEDON hasn’t arrived on your timetable but why not leave a letter for your grandchildren explaining exactly how it is all a hoax , to be opened in 50 years so they can hang it on the wall and they and their friends can laugh at it. Except they won’t be laughing.
Or why others didn’t join the climate cult.
Inbreds will be inbreds
Inbreds will be orange too
If inbreds create Ivanka and bush daughters, and non inbreds create chelsea and obama daughters I say keep on keepin on! lol
Paris Climate Accords is a ‘legal’ way to extract international taxes (breathing fees).
Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Not in the era of Trump.
Tim is on the wrong side of this one even though he believes in all that ‘green’ cow-plop. Stuart Applebaum (AFL-CIO) is playing him.
Is Stuart making a play to unionize the Austin shop?
Does smoking cause lung cancer? Because the tobacco companies and the fossil fuel industry are using the exact same arguments to make fools disbelieve clear scientific evidence for decade after decade. The coal industry knew about the dangers of unchecked CO2 emissions back in 1966. But they did nothing. Because there were still billions to be made.
Makes me sad.
https://grist.org/energy/exxon-knew-and-so-did-coal/
Guess what eats up and absorbs Co2? Guess whats way worse than Co2? Guess what puts out more Co2 than all of mankind in a matter of hours? … The “Global Warming / Climate Change” narrative is a money making scam to control and tax the development and technological progression of the masses.
We’re about to enter another ice age and high risk of interstellar impacts due to sun cycle and galaxial position.
WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!
Don’t you guys watch Ancient Aliens!?!
No, I prefer to read what real scientists write, not fantasists who deny real data in favor of a conspiracy theory.
Guess what eats up and absorbs Co2? Guess whats way worse than Co2? Guess what puts out more Co2 than all of mankind in a matter of hours? … The “Global Warming / Climate Change” narrative is a money making scam to control and tax the development and technological progression of the masses.
“Real scientists”…, funded by grants issued by government. Yeah, right.
I’m skeptical of anyone on the government dole.
A female porn star can act erotically aroused by an inanimate object such as a metal fireplace poker if she is paid to do the part. It doesn’t mean she is actually stimulated by a piece of iron!
If the “hoax” is explained by government funding, why have the scientists told a consistent story for the last 150 years, regardless of the party in power? Are you seriously claiming that during the twelve years since 1988 when Texas oilmen were President, or during the last three years, that studies hostile to fossil fuels were getting preferential funding?
I presume you’re talking about Al Gore?
No thanks Tim. Just another way to allow your ChiCom buddies to avoid competing fairly against the US. China and India are the world’s largest polluters. Do something about that Timmy. F’in coward.
Guess what eats up and absorbs Co2? Guess whats way worse than Co2? Guess what puts out more Co2 than all of mankind in a matter of hours? … The “Global Warming / Climate Change” narrative is a money making scam to control and tax the development and technological progression of the masses.
Good for you Zeos, you said it three times.
So . . . now you turn into a big cow?
Let’s say you lived in one of the most sophisticated high tech nations of the world. Let’s say that the entire world’s ecology has markedly declined in the last 3 centuries as the overpopulated planet, especially in less sophisticated societies, uses wasteful and inefficient practices that were never designed to scale to meet the needs of the world’s population.
Would you encourage your advanced nation to lower your standards to below average of the rest of the planet, or would you lead the way to PROFITABLY bring up other nations to the same standard as yours, creating millions of great jobs exporting efficient tech products and services, while significantly improving the health of everyone in your nation and the world?
Explain your answer and then contrast this to what anti-cooperative strongman populist dictator wannabes claim is the right path forward.
Deduct points for couching your answer with meaningless weak logic such as “scam” and “hoax”, which are typical losing debate tactics that the losing side repeats when they have no facts to bear… Anyone can point to dozens of multimillionaire and billionaire fossil fuel tycoons. There aren’t any climate change scientists enriching themselves to obscene levels by conducting hard difficult research and science to track the complex interactions of emissions on the planet and its life support systems. If you think otherwise, then feel free to join an Antarctic ice study and tell us why physical proof literally entombed in ice is weaker than the profiteering propaganda of fossil fuel companies who don’t want to change their near-monopoly over your transportation spending.
Plant MORE trees and plants that EAT CO2 emissions and create O2 (photosynthesis). If anything has happened over the last couple of hundred years, it’s the removal of forests. Re-plant trees everywhere EVEN along the highways and their medians (at least that way all of the idiots using their phones while driving will be “weeded out” of society by hitting the trees).
Agreed, that would be a pragmatic simple step with huge benefits for everyone. All that’s missing is leadership at a federal level. Too busy golfing.