Apple responds to Greenpeace - Get real!


Steve Jobs deals with reckless accusations at the annual shareholders meeting
With an Earth-centered faith, it's impossible not to be an environmentalist. But I am more interested in individual choice. I don't want you to "save the planet" because I held a gun to your head, I want you to do it because it is your choice.

That is one reason why it's hard to take Greenpeace seriously. It's not that I disagree with their objectives, I just don't like the methods they have chosen.

Take their annual attacks against Apple. Is it because Apple has that terrible an environmental record? No, not really, and especially not in comparison with other computer manufacturers.

It's because Apple is arguably the mindshare leader when it comes to computers and certain small electronics. That's why I have to admire Steve Jobs and his response.

Those comments didn't stop Greenpeace representatives from using the meeting as an opportunity to advertise the groups anti-Apple campaign. Among the activists sent by Greenpeace was Iza Kruszewska, one of the key architects of the corporation's Apple-oriented fundraising program.

Kruszewska was wearing a Greenpeace t-shirt styled after the former iPod ads, presenting Apple's products as dangerously toxic and encouraging user donations to Greenpeace to somehow solve that issue.

After attempting to take credit for Apple's announcements, Kruszewska questioned Jobs about Apple's potential do more to advance Greenpeace's political goals in announcing principles, but Jobs insisted that such “flowery” announcements were not really doing anything for the environment.

Jobs suggested that Greenpeace hire staff with engineering backgrounds who could understand the issues involved, and insisted that Apple does more to push innovative manufacturing techniques than other PC makers.

When Apple talks to its manufacturers, he said, they report that no other companies are pushing for similar, real changes. He questioned the real efforts HP and Dell were making to back up their announcements.

Jobs also blasted the criteria behind Greenpeace's highly publicized Greener Guide to Electronics, which ranks a random assortment of manufactures according to commitments listed on their websites.

Jobs said Greenpeace needed to develop rankings that reflected what companies actually do, not just what they promise to do at some point in the future.

I have to say that is an encouraging sign. Too often corporations today bow to accusations, even if those accusations are unfounded. This whole political pressure with unfounded accusations is meant to circumvent the free market and eliminate choice.

Not to mention making a tidy sum from extortion.

That is just one reason I can't support Greenpeace. I think that their tactics destroy their credibility.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Sat - May 12, 2007 at 04:39 PM  Tag


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