Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Greedy Apple CEO Tim Cook pollutes air via China sweat shops and thinks he's 'green' now moving some Apple business to another China plant which squeezes even more out of workers than scandalous Foxconn

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1/20/14, "China Exports Pollution to U.S., Study Finds," NY Times, Edward Wong
 

"Filthy emissions from China’s export industries are carried across the Pacific Ocean and contribute to air pollution in the Western United States, according to a paper published Monday by a prominent American science journal."...
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Poor working conditions at Apple Foxconn factory in China have led to riots as recently as Sept. 2013:  

9/23/2013, Apple riots in China, ndnews.oeeee.com Men carrying metal rods, man subdued, man injured

"According to a South Metropolitan report on Monday, the mob of 200-plus workers used batons, steel bars and machetes to damage dormitories, a cafeteria and an Internet café within Foxconn. The riot required military police intervention before being broken up."...



































































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Commenter notes hypocrisy of Apple CEO Tim Cook:

“Hey Tim, Apple’s massive profits are provided by Chinese factories that are run on the dirtiest power on earth soft Chinese coal. If you want to be green, move those factories back to the USA and use much cleaner US power.”"
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9/23/13, "Foxconn Riot: Largest Apple Supplier Suffers Another Violent Outbreak," ibtimes.com, Dave Smith

Apple CEO Tim Cook in 2012
"Almost exactly one year to the day since last September’s Foxconn riot, which involved nearly 2,000 workers and temporarily shut down the immense China factory, another massive fight broke out across two dormitory buildings in Foxconn’s Yantai factory in the Shandong province.

The fight reportedly began Thursday night during the Mid-Autumn Festival and escalated on Saturday, when more than 200 Foxconn workers from China’s Guizhou province began chanting “beat all that are from Shandong” and assaulted random passers-by wearing factory uniforms. 

According to a South Metropolitan report on Monday, the mob of 200-plus workers used batons, steel bars and machetes to damage dormitories, a cafeteria and an Internet café within Foxconn. The riot required military police intervention before being broken up, and was reportedly captured by cell phone videos and posted to China’s Internet. More than 100 people, a majority of whom were from the Guizhou province, were reportedly arrested.

Reports claimed over 27 workers had to be hospitalized, while a single report from MyDrivers.com said the riot has led to three deaths. Foxconn later acknowledged the incident via its official Sina Weibo account and said no one was severely injured, hospitalized or killed. The manufacturer said only 11 individuals had sustained minor injuries.

The violence at the Yantai plant should not affect business for Apple, as Foxconn was quick to point out that its Yantai plant has “no association” with the iPhone maker, but the factory does manufacture a diverse array of electronic components including DVD players and laptop computers. Foxconn is Apple's largest iPhone manufacturing contractor, but most production is carried out in Foxconn's sprawling campus informally known as "Foxconn City."" Image caption, "Dozens were injured as a mob of over two hundred workers used batons, steel bars and machetes to attack Foxconn's Yantai factory. In this photo, Apple CEO Tim Cook is shown visiting a different Foxconn factory in 2012. Courtesy / Reuters"
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Greedy 'green' Apple CEO Tim Cook wants even more profits than he was squeezing out of riot-prone Foxconn, is expanding to another China assembler which will give him better profits. They had an explosion that injured workers in 2011 and won't say if they've changed their labor practices since:

5/29/13, "Apple Shifts Supply Chain Away From Foxconn to Pegatron," WSJ, Eva Dou

"It was a famous partnership between two outsize personalities— Steve Jobs, Apple Inc. AAPL -0.01% 's intense and mercurial co-founder, and Terry Gou, the Taiwanese manufacturer's equally demanding chairman.

But under current Chief Executive Tim Cook, Apple is dividing its weight more equally with a relatively unknown supplier, giving the technology giant a greater supply-chain balance.

Pegatron Corp. 4938.TW +2.10% , named after the flying horse Pegasus, will be the primary assembler of a low-cost iPhone expected to be offered later this year. Foxconn's smaller rival across town became a minor producer of iPhones in 2011 and began making iPad Mini tablet computers last year.

Pegatron's rise means an end to the monopoly that Foxconn Technology Group 2354.TW +0.44% —the trade name for Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. 2317.TW +0.24% , the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer—has held over the production of Apple's mobile products....

Pegatron also has been willing to accept thinner profits as it courts Apple's business, analysts said. The company declined to comment about its pricing.

Apple declined to comment.

Foxconn's cost advantages from scale have waned as it works to improve factory conditions after a spate of high-profile worker suicides and accidents in recent years. Although Pegatron briefly caught the public eye in 2011 due to a factory explosion that injured dozens of workers, the smaller company has largely escaped the laserlike spotlight that has forced Foxconn to increase wages and make changes to its labor practices.

Foxconn, in its growing heft as the world's largest electronics contract company, was also getting more difficult for Apple to control, with incidents such as changing component sourcing without notifying Apple, people familiar with the matter said. At the same time, Foxconn became frustrated with the growing complexity of Apple products, such as the iPhone 5, which is difficult to make in the volumes Apple needed.

Executive changes at Apple have also made a difference. Mr. Jobs had been easier at forgiving his favorite manufacturing partner, according to several people familiar with the relationship. Now, instead of relying on the uniquely close partnership between "two leaders with a hero complex"—as one of the people said—Mr. Cook is putting a greater premium on risk diversification, they said....

But with its growing importance as an Apple supplier, Pegatron will likely also face growing scrutiny. The company declined to comment on whether it has made any changes to its labor practices after the 2011 factory explosion. 

As with other contract manufacturers, Pegatron's success is based largely on secrecy and tact as it juggles production of competing products from companies such as Apple, Microsoft Corp. MSFT 0.00% , Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ +0.10% as well as Dell Inc. ...

Pegatron's revenue in the first quarter—219.1 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$7.4 billion)—is dwarfed by Foxconn's NT$809.1 billion ($27.3 billion). The smaller company also has thinner operating margins: 0.8% compared with Foxconn's 1.7%."...

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3/4/14, "Warren Buffett disses global warming extreme weather fear-mongering," Thomas Lifson, American Thinker
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"In the wake of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s outburst telling global warming skeptics to sell their shares in his company, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett has publicly stated that warmists’ predictions of an increase in catastrophic weather have not come true. Sean Long of CNS News reports:

"Buffett told CNBC March 3, that extreme weather events haven't increased due to climate change, saying that weather events are consistent with how they were 30-50 years ago. Buffett, who is heavily invested in various insurance markets, said that climate change alarmism has simply made hurricane insurance more profitable, driving up premiums without increasing risk."
I wonder if Berkshire Hathaway holds any Apple shares, and if so, are they selling?

A commenter at Instapundit notes:
 
“Hey Tim, Apple’s massive profits are provided by Chinese factories that are run on the dirtiest power on earth soft Chinese coal. If you want to be green, move those factories back to the USA and use much cleaner US power.”"

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3/3/14, "Warren Buffett: Supposed Increase in Extreme Weather 'Hasn't been true so far,'" CNS News, Sean Long


Warren Buffett: Supposed Increase in Extreme Weather 'Hasn't Been True So Far' - See more at: http://m.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/sean-long/warren-buffett-supposed-increase-extreme-weather-hasnt-been-true-so-far#sthash.mbG080hQ.dpufBuffett spoke on CNBC on March 3, 2014. Video at link.

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1/20/14, "China Exports Pollution to U.S., Study Finds," NY Times, Edward Wong
 

"Filthy emissions from China’s export industries are carried across the Pacific Ocean and contribute to air pollution in the Western United States, according to a paper published Monday by a prominent American science journal.

The research is the first to quantify how air pollution in the United States is affected by China’s production of goods for export and by global consumer demand for those goods, the study’s authors say. It was written by nine scholars based in three nations and was published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which last year published a paper by other researchers that found a drop in life spans in northern China because of air pollution.
The latest paper explores the environmental consequences of interconnected economies. The scientists wrote that “outsourcing production to China does not always relieve consumers in the United States — or for that matter many countries in the Northern Hemisphere — from the environmental impacts of air pollution.”
The movement of air pollutants associated with the production of goods in China for the American market has resulted in a decline in air quality in the Western United States, the scientists wrote, though less manufacturing in the United States does mean cleaner air in the American East."...

Buffett told CNBC March 3, that extreme weather events haven't increased due to climate change - See more at: http://m.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/sean-long/warren-buffett-supposed-increase-extreme-weather-hasnt-been-true-so-far#sthash.mbG080hQ.dp
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