Apple's Tim Cook Reveals His Intemperate Ignorance Outburst at shareholder meeting displays mind-numbing ignorance about climate change
A reasonable question at Apple's annual meeting drew an intemperate response from Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, who revealed his astonishing scientific ignorance in an appalling display of complete disdain for shareholders who questioned Apple's lack of any cost-benefit analysis to support their blind adoption of Apple board member Al Gore's increasingly ludicrous and scientifically-challenged contention that fossil fuel usage causes catastrophic climate change. Note: climate has not been warming for nearly 17 years.
A reasonable question at Apple's annual meeting drew an intemperate response from Apple CEO, Tim Cook, who revealed his astonishing scientific ignorance in an appalling display of complete disdain for shareholders who questioned Apple's lack of any cost-benefit analysis to support their blind adoption of Apple board member Al Gore's increasingly ludicrous and scientifically-challenged contention that fossil fuel usage causes catastrophic climate change. [Note: while atmospheric carbon dioxide has continued to rise steadily, climate has not warmed over the past 17 years.]
The National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), through it's general counsel, Justin Danhof, stated at Apple's recent shareholder meeting, "We object to increased government control over company products and operations, and likewise mandatory environmental standards", concluding, "This is something [against which Apple] should be actively fighting, not preparing surrender."
Danhof's remarks targeted Apple's "green" initiatives that are based on a presumption that human use of fossil fuels is responsible for, as Al Gore would inappropriately characterize it, "catastrophic" climate change, despite there being no credible scientific evidence to support Gore's contention that human use of fossil fuels has any detectible impact on global climate.
Through Danhof, the NCPPR questioned why Apple would embark on costly "green" initiatives whose justification and need are not well-established and whose costs may far exceed any benefits to shareholders or the company. Rather than honestly and appropriately address the issue raised, Cook, in typical fashion of those who cannot defend their position, essentially changed the subject by stating that Apple didn't address return on investment (ROI) when making its products accessible for people with handicaps (e.g., the blind). Cook's response was both rude and entirely off point and was crude in its attempt to discredit the question.
"Here's the bottom line: Apple is as obsessed with the theory of so-called climate change as its board member Al Gore is," said Danhof. "The company's CEO fervently wants investors who care more about return on investments than reducing CO2 emissions to no longer invest in Apple. Maybe they should take him up on that advice."
"Although the National Center's proposal did not receive the required votes to pass, millions of Apple shareholders now know that the company is involved with organizations that don't appear to have the best interest of Apple's investors in mind," said Danhof. "Too often investors look at short-term returns and are unaware of corporate policy decisions that may affect long-term financial prospects. After today's meeting, investors can be certain that Apple is wasting untold amounts of shareholder money to combat so-called climate change. The only remaining question is: how much?"
In his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth", Apple board-member, Al Gore claimed that by 2013 the Arctic would be ice-free. In 2013, the Arctic experienced the greatest year-to-year expansion of ice since measurements of Arctic ice extent began being recorded. The winter of 2013-2014 has been among the coldest in many decades, setting many records. There has been no global warming for the past 17 years. All these facts fly in the face of the shaky theory supported by Gore that human use of fossil fuels will lead to catastrophic climate warming.
The key questions for Apple are, "(1) if Al Gore has been shown to be so wrong on the linkage between non-existent climate warming and human use of fossil fuels, why is he still an Apple board member, and, (2) what justification does Apple have to rely on Gore's claims to warrant its costly expenditures of shareholder assets in support of such claims without any serious return-on-investment and/or cost-effectiveness analyses?"
Cook's response to Danhof was both childish and intemperate. What should be of even greater concern to Apple is Cook's gross ignorance of the issue as revealed by his failure to take the questions put to him seriously, given the complete failure of Gore's global warming theories that have been contradicted by real-world observations over the past 17 years.
Evidently Cook believes he can bamboozle people as cleverly as did Al Gore with his (now laughably foolish) propaganda film claiming humans were destroying the planet's climate.
Perhaps Apple should be looking for a CEO who isn't wearing a foil hat when it comes to issues about climate change.
Author of "Looking Out the Window", an evidence-based examination of the "climate change" issue, Bob Webster, is a 12th-generation descendent of both the Darte family (Connecticut, 1630s) and the Webster family (Massachusetts, 1630s). He is a descendant of Daniel Webster's father, Revolutionary War patriot Ebenezer Webster, who served with General Washington. Bob has always had a strong interest in early American history, our Constitution, U.S. politics, and law. Politically he is a constitutional republican with objectivist and libertarian roots. He has faith in the ultimate triumph of truth and reason over deception and emotion. He is a strong believer in our Constitution as written and views the abandonment of constitutional restraint by the regressive Progressive movement as a great danger to our Republic. His favorite novel is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and believes it should be required reading for all high school students so they can appreciate the cost of tolerating the growth of unconstitutional crushingly powerful central government. He strongly believes, as our Constitution enshrines, that the interests of the individual should be held superior to the interests of the state.
A lifelong interest in meteorology and climatology spurred his strong interest in science. Bob earned his degree in Mathematics at Virginia Tech, graduating in 1964.
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