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why is this bad? if there's a shortage it sounds actively good because that means more cobalt for other people.
by why_only_15 3y ago
why is this bad? if there's a shortage it sounds actively good because that means more cobalt for other people.
- tacynicaltake9 3y agoCynical take: Greenwashing. They don't mention cobalt shortage at all. Making it sound like the environment is their primary goal.
- bilbo0s 3y agoMeh. None of this matters really. If I get someone to do the right thing, for the wrong reasons, then score one for me!
- froggertoaster 3y ago"Greenwashing" - never heard that term. Gonna use that one!
- troymc 3y agoI looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary (via my local public library). greenwash verb, transitive. (a) To mislead (the public) or counter (public or media concerns) by falsely representing a person, company, product, etc., as being environmentally responsible; (b) to misrepresent (a company, its operations, etc.) as environmentally responsible. The earliest source the OED found was in 1989, in The Daily Telegraph (London).
- jkestner 3y agoThere’s also pinkwashing, for nominal support of the LGBTQ community or breast cancer awareness (sometimes literally just putting pink on a product). But in either case it is superficial.
- aksss 3y agoA finer point - it’s mere marketing attempting to influence consumer buying decisions with platitudes that distract from pure capability evaluations or other considerations. Which obviously works on getting a lot of people over the purchasing hurdle.
- s3p 3y agoStill doesn't matter. Results are results.
- Taywee 3y agoI'm a cynic at heart, but I'm also a pragmatist. Somebody doing the right things for the wrong reasons is still doing the right things. I care about effects more than motivations.
- digging 3y agoI'm with you on this. They're misrepresenting themselves in a way that even may encourage others to make similar moves. The real problem with secret economic motivations is when they either prevent or undermine meaningful effort. But Apple is enacting meaningful effort here. It's good.
- alex_sf 3y agoIf everyone was dedicated to greenwashing, would that be better or worse than the current situation?
- meepmorp 3y agoMaybe the environment is actually their primary goal. Your cynical take necessarily invents a hidden motive, uncharitable to attribute to Apple.
- jutrewag 3y agoThat’s the opposite of greenwashing since it’s having a tangible benefit on the environment.
- kube-system 3y agoThe primary goal of any public for-profit company is to make money, by design. Any other goals roll up to that no matter their secondary motivations.