Big Tech On The Path To Net Zero: The Story With Amazon And Apple

[rangerrebew]

Big Tech On The Path To Net Zero: The Story With Amazon And Apple
July 17, 2024/ Francis Menton

Before everything got disrupted by the attempt on President Trump’s life, I had written a post last week titled “Big Tech On The Path To Net Zero.”  That post looked at the most recently issued “sustainability” reports from Google, Microsoft and Meta, and noted that all three admit to going rapidly in the opposite direction from “net zero.”  As their businesses grow in the direction of power-hungry data centers and AI, they inevitably require large incremental amounts of always-available electricity — the kind of electricity that wind and sun cannot provide.  Lacking viable alternatives to fossil fuels, their “emissions” rise.

But, you might ask, how about Amazon and Apple?  They too put out annual “sustainability” reports.  Here is the “2023 Amazon Sustainability Report” (that appears to have just been issued); and here is the “Apple Environmental Report covering fiscal year 2023,” that came out in April.  Unlike the similar Reports issued by Google, Microsoft and Meta, these Amazon and Apple Reports do not admit to lack of progress (let alone negative progress) on the “net zero” goal.  Are they being honest?

The answer is that these Reports from Amazon and Apple are substantially less honest than the efforts of Google, Microsoft and Meta.  Amazon’s Report follows the general pattern of the Google, Facebook and Meta Reports, with happy talk in the introduction and summaries and then some potentially real information buried deep in the interior.  Apple’s Report is the worst of the lot, and can best be described as an effort at deception and misdirection.  Let’s take a look.

From Amazon’s Report, the introductory letter from Chief Sustainability Officer Kara Hurst:

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2024-7-17-big-tech-on-the-path-to-net-zero-the-story-with-amazon-and-apple

[rangerrebew]

Big Tech On The Path To Net Zero
July 11, 2024/ Francis Menton

Among the adherents to the cult of climate change, nobody can claim a higher level of sanctimony than the Big Tech behemoths — the likes of Google, Microsoft and Meta.  These new economic titans fancy themselves to be totally unlike the dirty and grubby industrial companies of the past, like the steel, automobile or oil producers with their belching smokestacks.  Each of these new tech powerhouses loudly proclaims its sacred and unwavering commitment to “net zero” emissions by some early date, typically 2030. 

And each of them puts out an annual report documenting its progress toward the rapidly arriving nirvana.  Here is Google’s 2024 “Environmental Report”;  Microsoft’s “2024 Environmental Sustainability Report”; and Meta’s “2023 Sustainability Report”.

But don’t these companies use vast quantities of energy in their operations, not the least for rapidly expanding data centers?  Surely, their “emissions” must be increasing.  How are they going to spin that?

The disconnect between the “net zero” fantasies and the rapidly increasing energy usage makes these Reports entertaining reading.

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2024-7-11-big-tech-on-the-path-to-net-zero

[catfish1957]

Net Zero is a joke for those companies like these that Carbon Footprint is mostly office space.