As part of Apple’s launch of the iPhone 12, the company released the following:
“Apple is also removing the power adapter and EarPods from iPhone packaging, further reducing carbon emissions and avoiding the mining and use of precious materials, which enables smaller and lighter packaging, and allows for 70 percent more boxes to be shipped on a pallet. Taken altogether, these changes will cut over 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually, equivalent to removing nearly 450,000 cars from the road per year.”
Is this greenwashing? A way to get Apple fans to fork out more cash to their favourite corporate overlord?
Let see five reasons why indeed it is.
#1 – You need to buy the charger separately to get fast charging
They attempted to claim that you can use old chargers, you really don’t get the full benefit of the fast charging. For that, you need to buy the 20W charger. How much? Another 19 bucks ($25 in Canada).
And guess what? The investors love it - and that's how you know it's going to cost you:
“Despite Apple’s claim that the absence of the plug was a pro-environment move, it’s on track to see an uptick in its hardware accessories and wearables category thanks to the sale of the plugs and the new ecosystem it’s building around the iPhone 12′s MagSafe charging system. That category, which includes products such as the Apple Watch, AirPods, chargers and other accessories, has already shown promising growth. Sales jumped nearly 17% to $6.45 billion in Apple’s fiscal third quarter.” [emphasis added]
#2 – Apple is King of the Consumerism
Where did they make this announcement? Was it at their annual Applepalooza where they try to convince you that you should trash the iPhone you bought last year? Environmentalism. Right.
To save the environment, we need to stop consuming. And for that, Apple has to stop existing. Apple's entire business model, in contrast, makes us consume more and more.
Consider, what’s Tim Cook’s prime concern?
Increasing the stock price. Why? He’s slated to get +1 million shares by 2025. How does he do that? Convince us to buy more and more. What does that mean? More aluminum, cobalt, titanium, iron, gold and rare earth metals like yttrium and europium. That means more gases being exhaled out in the atmosphere, more earth is torn apart, and more pollutants ending up in waterways. And it also means more maimed children in the Congo who mine these minerals.
And for what?
So, you can get rid of your iPhone just to buy another - along with that $19 charger. Psychological obsolescence at its finest. Apple is so good at this game that they get the brain's religious part to light up when fans see their logo.
The idea that Apple cares about the environment is like believing that Philip-Morris wants us to stop smoking (yes, the king of cigarettes actually tried to rebrand themselves that way): neither will pursue a strategy that makes them obsolete.
#3 – Apple fights right to fix legislation
We must abandon the consumer economy and adopt a longevity economy. Buy things and fix them. More businesses should be repairing what's out there instead of just producing to get the GDP numbers up. Personal items would become more valuable because the supply would be less.
And so, what does Apple do?
Fight the “right to fix” legislation:
“A right to repair bill that would have forced manufacturers selling electronic devices and other consumer products in Ontario to provide consumers and small businesses with the tools and knowledge to repair brand-name gadgets is officially dead. The failed vote follows lobbying against the legislation from major tech companies including Apple, according to the bill’s sponsor.”
Even when a court sided with a Norwegian repair shop over Apple’s claim that he was engaging in counterfeit goods, Apple appealed the case and won.
#4 – Apple fights universal standards and technologies
Lobbying and lawsuits are but one strategy to prevent the move from a consumer economy to a repair economy. Apple also fails to adopt standard accessories. Apple invented the lightning charging port instead of a universal standard like the USB-C port when it discarded the 30-pin connector. In Europe, they fought against adopting a universal charger.
But did you know that they have their own proprietary pentalobe screws? That’s right, they don’t even use standard screws.
Why would they do this?
By Apple maintaining a monopoly in repairing, Apple can force people to buy new stuff because it’s too expensive to repair. As exposed on CBC, an Apple Store claimed that a $150 repair would cost $1200, which, as the store clerk said, the "cost is very close to the cost of buying a new computer."
#5 – Apple investigated for alleged Planned Obsolescence
As noted on BBC, “French prosecutors have launched a probe over allegations of "planned obsolescence" in Apple's iPhone. Under French law it is a crime to intentionally shorten lifespan of a product with the aim of making customers replace it.” The article goes on to say:
“In December, Apple admitted that older iPhone models were deliberately slowed down through software updates.” [emphasis added]
Apple was ultimately fined 25 million Euros for "failing to inform consumers that updating their iPhone's operating system would slow down the device."
The NGO, Stop Planned Obsolescence, who brought about this case, fights Apple and other companies precisely because the practices are toxic to the environment.
Why single out Apple?
Aside from the fact is that they made these claims , it's a fair point to claim that other companies may also engage in greenwashing and so on. The question is, why? Capitalism rewards these anti-environmental practices because all it cares about is production.
Islam deals with this by several factors, but a key one is preventing the production commandeering the economy. You can't eat GDP. For example, by eliminating corporations and the stock market, you can't offer a CEO a million shares of make-belief assets. Instead, as a partner in a company, you can earn a percentage of profits. By making the human being central to the company, the business owners cannot just focus on shareholder value. Instead, those partners are citizens who live and work in a community. Islam makes solving poverty their obligation as part of this community. For example, suppose someone steals that rich person's private property to feed his hunger. In that case, he can't take him to court because it was his obligation to have provided him in the first place. Therefore, moral, humanitarian, spiritual, and materialistic values are addressed collectively in a harmonious way. Capitalism and it consumer-oriented companies only care about the materialistic value that pillages the people and the planet, resulting in a "death economy” toxic to all.