Perhaps go to ground to find out the supplier's attitudes, parts of which have been suggested by other posters. The suppliers responsibility report is probably the strongest way to tackle this. Money talks.
Your statement "The US had a couple hundred year head start in industrialization but in the early days they polluted lots of rivers and occasionally still do accidentally." implies it is always "accidental" when it "occasionally" happens. The implication that it happens "occasionally" and when it does it's always "accidentally" is an incorrect one. Maybe it never makes the news in California but cases of river pollution are by no means rare here in the northeast, and it's harder to find a case of accidental industrial river pollution than non-accidental.
You should provide some links. I'm sure you can find some. I never intended my original statement to imply an absolute only that generally speaking the pollution situation in the US is greatly improved from even a few decades ago. Due to environmental law enforcement we enjoy much cleaner rivers than much of the rest of the industrialized world.
We are not without our own stupid government driven escapades either, just look at some recent jobs programs. For example the stupidity of light rail programs that would give us more of 1950's technology. Mind you I'm not against public transportation but really we need to be more forward looking and innovative.
I recently visited Portland and was rather impressed with their metro light rail system, which is free for the city area and quite affordable for the outlying areas. It was very convenient. When I travel, I usually rent a car but in Portland the rail goes right to the airport and I used it exclusively during my 1 week stay.
What do you find objectionable about light rail and what technology do you suggest as being more forward looking and innovative?
Does the Chinese government truly not care about their own environment? Is the almighty yen (or dollar) that much more important than the health of their inhabitants. Do they simply turn a blind eye to what's right in front of them and only act (if they do) when the media catches on?
This is not an Apple issue. I'll bet other manufacturers for other brands have the exact (if not worse) problem with waste.
I mean come on! We had our problems in the US back in the early ages, but even if China is catching up it's not like they started from caves. Heck, they had us to use as a template of how to do things. Do they care that little about themselves?
You don't think there is still tremendous pollution in the United States? While we might not be as obvious about it as the Chinese, we're still pretty bad. And the reality is that until your own water is bad or until there's a cancer cluster close to where you live, most people don't give a crap. Given a choice between clean air or water and jobs, most people in the U.S. (and certainly most Republicans) will choose jobs and profits. When people talk about reducing government regulations on business, what do you think they're referring to? While some of it is about record keeping and SOX compliance, most of it is about environmental protections.
GE and Kodak polluted the Hudson River for decades and we're still feeling the effects - the river is still filled with PCBs. There are still thousands of Superfund toxic waste sites in the United States.
One of the reasons why this happens in China is because companies like Apple and WalMart force the supplier chain to manufacture for such low cost, it's simply not economically feasible to either pay employees well or to follow strong environmental practices. But like Apple ][ above, given a choice between paying more for Apple devices to insure proper environmental practices in China or paying less and not caring, I believe that most people would prefer not to care.
This is not just an Apple problem. It's also national problem for China for pushing to expand and keeping the big economy running...and a global issue. China can't ignore smog and bad water forever, it'll come back to bite them big time.
Comments
Perhaps go to ground to find out the supplier's attitudes, parts of which have been suggested by other posters. The suppliers responsibility report is probably the strongest way to tackle this. Money talks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jlandd
Your statement "The US had a couple hundred year head start in industrialization but in the early days they polluted lots of rivers and occasionally still do accidentally." implies it is always "accidental" when it "occasionally" happens. The implication that it happens "occasionally" and when it does it's always "accidentally" is an incorrect one. Maybe it never makes the news in California but cases of river pollution are by no means rare here in the northeast, and it's harder to find a case of accidental industrial river pollution than non-accidental.
You should provide some links. I'm sure you can find some. I never intended my original statement to imply an absolute only that generally speaking the pollution situation in the US is greatly improved from even a few decades ago. Due to environmental law enforcement we enjoy much cleaner rivers than much of the rest of the industrialized world.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wizard69
We are not without our own stupid government driven escapades either, just look at some recent jobs programs. For example the stupidity of light rail programs that would give us more of 1950's technology. Mind you I'm not against public transportation but really we need to be more forward looking and innovative.
I recently visited Portland and was rather impressed with their metro light rail system, which is free for the city area and quite affordable for the outlying areas. It was very convenient. When I travel, I usually rent a car but in Portland the rail goes right to the airport and I used it exclusively during my 1 week stay.
What do you find objectionable about light rail and what technology do you suggest as being more forward looking and innovative?
Originally Posted by mstone
I recently visited Portland and was rather impressed with their metro light rail system…
Total aside, was it diesel or electric?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
Originally Posted by mstone
I recently visited Portland and was rather impressed with their metro light rail system…
Total aside, was it diesel or electric?
Electric
Quote:
Originally Posted by sflocal
Does the Chinese government truly not care about their own environment? Is the almighty yen (or dollar) that much more important than the health of their inhabitants. Do they simply turn a blind eye to what's right in front of them and only act (if they do) when the media catches on?
This is not an Apple issue. I'll bet other manufacturers for other brands have the exact (if not worse) problem with waste.
I mean come on! We had our problems in the US back in the early ages, but even if China is catching up it's not like they started from caves. Heck, they had us to use as a template of how to do things. Do they care that little about themselves?
You don't think there is still tremendous pollution in the United States? While we might not be as obvious about it as the Chinese, we're still pretty bad. And the reality is that until your own water is bad or until there's a cancer cluster close to where you live, most people don't give a crap. Given a choice between clean air or water and jobs, most people in the U.S. (and certainly most Republicans) will choose jobs and profits. When people talk about reducing government regulations on business, what do you think they're referring to? While some of it is about record keeping and SOX compliance, most of it is about environmental protections.
GE and Kodak polluted the Hudson River for decades and we're still feeling the effects - the river is still filled with PCBs. There are still thousands of Superfund toxic waste sites in the United States.
One of the reasons why this happens in China is because companies like Apple and WalMart force the supplier chain to manufacture for such low cost, it's simply not economically feasible to either pay employees well or to follow strong environmental practices. But like Apple ][ above, given a choice between paying more for Apple devices to insure proper environmental practices in China or paying less and not caring, I believe that most people would prefer not to care.