No, your new Apple Watch isn’t ‘Carbon Neutral’

Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the new Apple Watch Series 9 claiming it to be the company’s first offering that’s said to be completely “carbon neutral.” It’s not.

Gregory Barber for Wired:

The phrase “carbon neutral” is the rare bit of marketing speak that says exactly what it means: no extra carbon. No extra harm to our troubled planet. The label will be slapped onto a subset of 9th-generation Apple Watches with a particular combination of casing and wristbands. They will come in packaging emblazoned with a wreath of electric green leaves…
That approach is a little confounding, says David Ho, a climate scientist at the University of Hawaii, because more stuff always has an impact. “There is no such thing as a carbon-neutral product,” he says. “It’s kind of silly. It gives consumers the idea that there are ways out of these problems that don’t involve consuming less.” Unless the new Watch has been designed to suck CO2 directly from the atmosphere, he jokes, it’s not actually carbon neutral.
Boats still burn fuel, after all. Recycled materials can’t cover everything. More stuff is still more stuff. So the rest comes from carbon credits, generated from investments in nature conservation and restoration projects intended to sock away CO2 so it can’t warm the globe.
Part of the problem is the slipperiness of attempting to tie a carbon credit — an abstract financial instrument — to any particular product in Apple’s armada of product offerings or the wider global economy. The Watch doesn’t have any role in creating those credits. They’re only brought together by an accountant’s sleight of hand.
Of course, that assumes you think carbon credits mean much in the first place… Apple declined to comment on the record but has said that in addition to standards like Verra’s it will also directly verify projects using satellites and other technology.
Those problems often defy the good intentions of those paying for the carbon credits these projects underpin. A recent investigation by The Guardian found more than 90 percent of projects by Verra, a major carbon crediting body, didn’t actually put away additional carbon. Many of its projects simply pushed destruction elsewhere…
No, your new watch isn’t carbon neutral.

‎
MacDailyNews Take: A poem from John Dryden springs to mind:
‎ ‎
When I consider life, ’tis all a cheat;
Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit;
Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay:
Tomorrow’s falser than the former day;
Lies worse; and while it says, we shall be blessed
With some new joys, cuts off what we possessed.
Strange cozenage! none would live past years again,
Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain;
And, from the dregs of life, think to receive
What the first sprightly running could not give.
I’m tired with waiting for this chemic gold,
Which fools us young, and beggars us when old.
‎
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.

The post No, your new Apple Watch isn’t ‘Carbon Neutral’ appeared first on MacDailyNews.