Apple Pledges $200 Million, Promises To Be Carbon Neutral By 2030 Or Something

I wonder if this means that most of their products will no longer be primarily produced in China, including iPhones, iPads, computers, and earbuds. It’s not all in China, they have factories around the world. What’s the carbon footprint of all that plastic and such used and shipped on fossil fueled autos, ships, and planes? Who will ultimately pay for this?

Apple launches $200 million fund for climate change

Apple has created a $200 million fund to invest in forestry projects to help remove carbon from the atmosphere while also generating financial returns for its investors, the company said Thursday. The Restore Fund will invest in forest properties that are managed to increase carbon removal and produce timber. The goal is to remove 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually from the atmosphere.

Apple said last year it wants to eliminate its contributions to climate change and become carbon neutral by 2030. The company says it will directly eliminate 75 percent of emissions from its supply chain and products by 2030, and the Restore Fund will help address the other 25 percent of its emissions. Apple’s partners in the Restore Fund include the nonprofit Conservation International and the Goldman Sachs group which will manage the fund.

“Through creating a fund that generates both a financial return as well as real, and measurable carbon impacts, we aim to drive broader change in the future — encouraging investment in carbon removal around the globe,” Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy, and social initiatives, said in a statement. “Our hope is that others share our goals and contribute their resources to support and protect critical ecosystems.”

So, a company with a huge supply and distribution/sales chain wants to get all climaActivist? Who, exactly, is going to “drive broader change”? It’s cute verbiage, but, you can bet that if we come back to this in 2030 we’ll find that Apple hasn’t really done anything in their own operations, that product is still be made primarily in China and shipped all over the world, and that they really didn’t invest all that money. And, for what little they are doing they just raised the price of their products. This is a company that wants you to buy a new phone every year or two. If they really cared, they would make ones that lasted longer, rather than being made to die in a year or two. A lithium battery should last 10+ years without losing the ability to hold charge. It is planned obsolescence. It’s built in. And what happens to these devices? Landfills?

There’s some controversy around the strategy of using forests as a way of offsetting greenhouse emissions. The World Economic Forum launched an initiative last year to plant a trillion trees to cut emissions. But its effort cited a study that greatly overestimated the impact such an effort would have on the environment, researchers later found.

You know why? Because Donald Trump pushed this initiative, hence, Warmists were against it.

Read: Apple Pledges $200 Million, Promises To Be Carbon Neutral By 2030 Or Something »

Chicago Police Release Bodycam Footage Of Shooting Of Adam Toledo, Pushing “Hands Up” Narrative

As the police released the footage, most media outlets either forgot to mention very important information, or buried it deep

In several fateful seconds, video appears to show 13-year-old Adam Toledo toss gun, turn with empty hands raised before Chicago cop fires fatal shot (warning: graphic content)

It happened in seconds: the pause in a dark Little Village alley, the officer’s shot fired, the 13-year-old crumpling to the ground.

Video of Adam Toledo’s fatal shooting by police was released to the public Thursday (warning: link contains graphic content), more than two weeks after the teen’s killing left the neighborhood in anguish and Chicago on edge.

Authorities released extensive video from body-worn cameras, surveillance footage, gunfire detection data and 911 recordings. Taken altogether, the video appears to show Toledo with a gun that he discards as he turns toward the officer with his empty hands raised.

And the city’s focus inevitably turned toward the crucial split second showing the shooting itself — the grainy, graphic end to the life of the youngest person fatally shot by Chicago police in years.

The video from the body-worn camera of the officer who fired the shot captures the instant Toledo was struck, moments after the officer begins chasing the teen down the alley. The materials were published on the website of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which is now charged with investigating.

All three of the links above have excellent video of the incident. Here’s a quickie

https://twitter.com/SharylAttkisson/status/1382860299364147205?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1382860299364147205%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fbrettt-3136%2F2021%2F04%2F15%2Fchicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-warns-chicagoans-to-brace-themselves-for-footage-of-13-year-old-being-shot-by-police%2F

This all did happen in a spit second, and even the above Chicago Tribune leaves out vital information

Police have said officers were dispatched to the Little Village neighborhood shortly before 3 a.m. on March 29 after the department’s ShotSpotter technology detected the sound of eight gunshots. When they arrived, Toledo and a 21-year-old man ran away. While chasing the teen, there was an “armed confrontation” during which the officer shot him once in the chest.

Again, what was this child doing out at 3am on a Monday morning, hanging with a 21 year old who was firing off shots in an area that has tech to pick up gun shots? A known gang area

“If the defendant does not bring the 13-year-old with him, if he doesn’t bring his gun with him while on gun offender probation, if he doesn’t shoot that gun seven to eight times on a city street with the victim standing in arms length of him while he’s firing those shots … none of it would have happened,” Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said in court, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Lightfoot said earlier this month she instructed Chicago Police Department officials “to use every resource to track down the origins of this gun – through tracing, fingerprinting and DNA and any other means – and to find the person responsible for giving it to Adam.”

And what is Adam’s culpability, being out at 3am? Perhaps he shouldn’t have been hanging. The area is know for the Latin Kings gang. Toledo is of Mexican American descent. Where were his parents when he was out at 3am?

It is interesting that so many people are caterwauling about this (while forgetting the important details) while not giving a damn about the dozens shot and even killed every single week in Chicago. We know the narrative will be about him having his hands up, ignoring the gun in his hand as the cop chased him and dropped a split second before whipping around.

Read: Chicago Police Release Bodycam Footage Of Shooting Of Adam Toledo, Pushing “Hands Up” Narrative »

Say, How Much Does The U.S. Owe The Rest Of The World For Climate Crisis (scam)?

Climate cultists who won’t give up their own money or modern lives have a question

How much does the US owe the rest of the world for climate change?

John Kerry, America’s special envoy on climate change, is on a whirlwind global tour to drum up support for a climate “leaders summit” on Earth Day next week. He’s hoping to re-establish the US as a climate leader and extract more serious ambition from his peers, but has been dogged by a familiar complaint from officials in developing economies: the global race to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions is fundamentally unfair.

Every country needs to reach net-zero emissions no later than 2050 to avert catastrophic climate change, according to the UN. Not all countries have contributed to the problem equally. Historically,  the US and Europe have emitted more than half of cumulative global emissions, and still produce far more climate pollution per capita than other countries. Should the countries most responsible for climate change pick up the bill for everyone else? Politicians in China, and emerging big emitters like India or Brazil, argue they shouldn’t be asked to lift their citizens out of poverty or recover from the pandemic while phasing out the fossil energy resources that Americans and Europeans continue to take for granted. (snip)

Kerry and his colleagues should be prepared to buy back US credibility on climate change with cold hard cash, argues Mohamed Adow, director of Nairobi-based think tank Power Shift Africa. “International equity is a fundamental tenet of the UN convention on climate change, but most rich countries refuse to pull their weight,” said Adow. “They have to be dragged kicking and screaming simply to adopt [climate commitments] that fully reflect their responsibility for the climate crisis.”

Tell you what: how much does the world owe the U.S.? We’ve saved it twice in world wars and again from the menace of the Soviet Union. Some of the biggest developments in the modern era have come from the U.S., from cars to planes to computers to medical, and so on. We’ve given more than enough of the taxpayer money to all these 3rd world shitholes developing nations who never seem to develop. We fund all sorts of groups under the United Nations and such more than any other nation. How about they repay the U.S.?

The US can raise climate capital from other sources as well. A first step could be for the US to emulate European countries by doubling its Green Climate Fund commitment. It could also make first-time contributions to other internationally-managed funds like the Adaptation Fund and the Least Developed Countries Fund, and increase its provision of low-interest loans for clean energy projects, especially in situations where a country’s only financing alternative is China-backed fossil fuels.

We’ve been funding these nations for over 50 years, and they rarely do anything, and rarely say “thanks.”

But US climate policies run the risk of harming developing countries’ economies. The drive to quickly phase out fossil fuels, without cheap clean energy to replace them, could cost poorer countries. A proposal to end US financing for fossil fuel projects abroad, for example, could leave hundreds of millions of people without reliable and affordable access to electricity. On April 9, officials from India, China, Brazil, and South Africa complained the EU’s plan to tax high-carbon imports was “discriminatory” against low-income exporting countries, because customers in importing countries bear responsibility for the emissions, but the economic pain falls on exporting nations. “The scale and speed of climate finance from developed countries has to increase considerably,” they wrote.

The hell you say!

We have people with their own problems, even before the COVID pandemic. Let’s take care of our own first.

Read: Say, How Much Does The U.S. Owe The Rest Of The World For Climate Crisis (scam)? »

If All You See…

…is a wonderful low carbon bike, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Right Scoop, with a post on the Florida House passing a bill banning men from playing women’s sports.

Read: If All You See… »

Liberals Are Super Excited For Police To No Longer Make Traffic Stops

Seriously, what could possibly go wrong if police no longer make traffic stops? USA Today thinks they’re making a point

What would happen if cops didn’t make certain traffic stops? This North Carolina city offers a case study

Before dawn one morning in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a Black woman in her late 60s was pulled over by a police officer. The officer said she’d run a stop sign.

She denied the charge. She was just trying to get to her Bible studies class, she told him. He ran her license and concluded the stop with a warning. The incident disturbed her nevertheless. While he did not ticket her, the officer questioned her reason for being out that morning – it was too early for Bible study groups, he said sarcastically.

This did not sit well with her Bible study group that day in 2013, especially one of its newer attendees, whose husband was the new Fayetteville police chief. She relayed the incident.

Harold Medlock was exasperated. Apparently one of his officers had been randomly stopping people in their neighborhoods.

She blew the stop sign and should have gotten a ticket, not a warning. Don’t want to get pulled? Don’t blow a stop sign. Just trying to get to her Bible studies class is not an excuse.

It was precisely the kind of policing he was there to change. “It never occurred to me that I would have a cop out there doing everything wrong, from the way you treat somebody to the basic protocols and procedures for traffic stop,” he said.

Medlock had arrived in Fayetteville already convinced that the police department’s focus regarding motor vehicles should be on speeding, stop sign/light violations, DWI and reckless driving – moving violations of immediate concern to public safety.

She blew a stop sign. Why was the new Chief upset? It was exactly the type of moving violation that is of immediate concern to public safety.

Stopping drivers for non-moving violations such as equipment failures or expired registration ought to be minimized or avoided altogether, he told his department.

Except, they encoded in law, and police are supposed to uphold the law. Take tail-lights: they give clues to people driving behind them, right? If one is broken, that clue could be late in being seen. That’s why the federal government passed a law requiring the 3rd tail light and that it be higher up in the driver’s viewing field. Expired registration? Perhaps this person shouldn’t be driving that car. Perhaps the brakes failed inspection, meaning it is a danger to other people.

My friend was stopped for a dead tail light. The cop walked up, said, your taillight is out, need to get that fixed. Then “have a good day.” Most people don’t know until someone tells them. Cops would rather not have to do this, because some people have hissy fits (or worse), but, it’s necessary to increase safety on the road, especially with more and more cars. And more and more people paying less attention to the road and more to their phones. I don’t remember complaints from the media about officers pulling people over for using their phones after laws in some places were passed banning the usage in cars.

Numerous studies have shown that Black and Hispanic drivers are disproportionately targeted for traffic stops, and once stopped are more likely to have their cars searched during the stop.

Police and activists agree that these stops are fraught with danger for both citizens and police. As a cop, Medlock knew there was a complicated way to fix this, and a simple one. He went with the simple one: get cops out of the habit of pulling over people unless they needed to do so to protect the safety of others on the road.

So, they see an expired tag and do nothing? How soon till they aren’t supposed to pull people over for other infractions?

In North Carolina, police make about a million traffic stops a year. Half of those, according to Frank Baumgartner, political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, are not safety-related stops.

He thinks stopping a driver because of a broken taillight or equipment violation does little for safety. “And it comes with a cost in terms of public trust and confidence in the police.”

In the tech age, it should be simple, as a cop told me: pull them over, tell them the problem, tell them to fix it, send a picture of it being fixed. But, notice, they aren’t really giving anything other than expired tags and taillights. Take those two out, and you still have cops pulling people over for moving violations. And people going wacky instead of just taking the ticket.

The rest is just about trying to paint police as Bad Guys. They might be pulling people over for reasons, because they know something funny is going on.

In Fayetteville from 2013 to 2016, the effects of Medlock’s enforcement directions were easily measurable: stops for non-moving violations went way down; investigative stops went to zero all four years; and stops for speeding increased dramatically.

Meanwhile, focused traffic enforcement for moving violations such as speed or stop/red light violations skyrocketed from 13,000 a year to 46,000 a year in four years.

I wouldn’t mind that, as people blowing stop signs makes me nuts. It’s so dangerous. Of course, other crime has gone way up in Fayetteville, and lots of those other stops could have put a stop to them.

At the end of the day, though, if people don’t like the stops they should ask the city, counties, and states to take those violations off the books.

Read: Liberals Are Super Excited For Police To No Longer Make Traffic Stops »

If It’s Such A Climate Emergency, Why Do So Few Act Like It?

It is a good, and relevant question, but, not one climate cultists really want to answer, because they think words matter more, and want to apply their Beliefs to Other People

‘Words matter’: Numerous news outlets to use ‘climate emergency’ instead of ‘climate change’

Forget climate change. It’s a climate emergency.

The evidence is irrefutable, and now dozens of news outlets worldwide are joining the thousands of scientists who have been clamoring ever more loudly for the world to take note of the existential, self-made threat facing humanity — and act on it.

“Journalism should reflect what science says: the climate emergency is here,” wrote Scientific American senior editor Mark Fischetti, explaining the magazine’s decision to swap out the term “climate change” for “climate emergency.”

If it’s irrefutable, why are these news outlets continuing to use fossil fuels to gather and disseminate the news?

“This idea is not a journalistic fancy,” Fischetti wrote. “We are on solid scientific ground.”

That ground has been laid by myriad experts over the past several decades, including more than 11,000 scientists from 153 countries who in 2019 signed a declaration warning of “untold human suffering” if climate change is not stemmed. The number has since increased to 13,802 scientists and 156 countries, according to the Alliance of World Scientists at Oregon State University.

These same people are not giving up their own use of fossil fuels and making their lives carbon neutral. If your doctor tells you to stop smoking and eat healthier, yet, smells like smoke and is clearly overweight, do you listen to them?

Moreover, at least 1,859 jurisdictions in 33 countries, covering more than 820 million people, have issued climate emergency declarations, according to the monitoring website Climate Emergency Declaration, as Scientific American noted in an earlier op-ed.

That includes Spain, which declared a climate emergency in January of last year; the southern German city of Konstanz, near the Swiss border, which did so in May 2019, according to The Associated Press; the European Union Parliament, as AP reported at the end of 2019, and the U.S.’ own Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling on President Biden’s administration to declare a climate emergency in February of this year, AP reported.

Not to beat a dead horse, but I will because it matters, that’s mostly all they are doing, is declaring it, but not making changes to accord with that belief.

“Why ‘emergency’?” the journalism statement said. “Because words matter. To preserve a livable planet, humanity must take action immediately.”

Actions matter more.

Read: If It’s Such A Climate Emergency, Why Do So Few Act Like It? »

Fascist Party To Unveil Bill To Pack The Supreme Court

How many times have you seen a Democrat yammer on about protecting our democracy? That voting matters? That every vote should count? Well, since they can’t get their own way on the Supreme Court, they’ve moved one step closer to implementing their Progressice (nice Fascism) agenda

Democrats to propose legislation expanding the Supreme Court

Several House Democrats are set to unveil legislation Thursday to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court.

Supporters of the proposal plan to hold a news conference on the steps of the Supreme Court building. They include U.S. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and U.S. Reps. Jerry Nadler and Mondaire Jones, both of New York, and Hank Johnson of Georgia.

Given Democrats’ control of the White House and Senate, the legislation could allow the party to supersede the court’s current conservative majority by “packing” the Court with liberal justices.

Some Republicans quickly derided the proposal.

“Does expanding the Supreme Court count as infrastructure too?” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote on Twitter. (snip)

The legislation will propose expanding the court to 13 justices, from nine, The Intercept reported Wednesday.

The shame of this all is that it shouldn’t matter how many justices serve on the court, because they should be following the Constitution as their only principle, but, Democrat appointees rarely do that. They apply their politics (not that some Republican appointees don’t go off the reservation, usually toward the Democrats opinions). They take an oath to the Constitution. And, the Supreme Court is supposed to be independent from the Legislative and Executive Branches. This would truly make those 4 justices in the back pocket of Biden-Harris.

(Washington Times) The Supreme Court has had nine justices since 1869. Prior to that, it fluctuated in size from five to 10 justices. The Constitution does not set a number of justices for the high court.

Why? Because it works. It didn’t go well when FDR tried to pack the court.

Mike Davis, president of the conservative Article III Project, said lawmakers who are part of this effort should be “ashamed” of themselves.

“Democrats who would destroy the independence and legitimacy of the high court must be disavowed as political pariahs by every last one of their colleagues. Packing the Supreme Court would be a declaration of war that could not be undone. President Biden and Democrats in Congress should tread extremely carefully. Packing the Supreme Court is a red line they must not cross. If they actually love their country, they should stand down immediately,” Mr. Davis said.

Except, pretty much every elected Democrat will back this. You might get just enough in the Senate to kill the legislation, but, that’s it. And, if it does make it through, calling it a declaration of war might not be just hyperbole, as this would immediately change the rulings to protect the hardcore Democrat agenda.

Read: Fascist Party To Unveil Bill To Pack The Supreme Court »

Hot Take: Even If We Do Something About Climate Emergency It’ll Still Be Hot

I told you not to have that delicious cheeseburger, fries, and sugary drink after taking a fossil fueled drive to the airport to take a fossil fueled flight!

Carbon Emissions Could Plummet. The Atmosphere Will Lag Behind

In the next several days, the Biden administration is expected to announce plans across the economy to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions dramatically by 2030.

The Biden administration’s goal is to speed the process to avoid a climate tipping point that scientists warn is quickly approaching. If global warming continues at its current pace, rising seas and heavy rain will flood cities around the world, wildfires and hurricanes will become even more destructive, and many more plant and animal species will go extinct.

The tipping points they’ve been pimping for 30 years?

But reducing emissions, even sharply, will not immediately fix the problems up in Earth’s atmosphere. It took decades for greenhouse gases to accumulate in the atmosphere and trap heat, and it will take centuries for those gases to dissipate once humans decide to stop pumping them into the air.

“When you emit carbon dioxide, the climate stays altered for a long time,” says Solomon Hsiang, a climate scientist who is the co-director at the Climate Impact Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. “And so we kind of have to deal with that baggage no matter what.”

Everyone alive will still need to adapt to a warming climate. Today’s adults will be dealing with climate-driven extreme weather for decades to come. But if countries transform their economies to cut heat-trapping emissions sharply, today’s kindergartners could inherit a safer world when they reach middle age.

This really does two things: one, it’s meant to subtly explain away why, despite the big drop in CO2 output during Lockdown there was no atmospheric change. Second, it sets the stage for Believers to willingly give up their money, freedom, and choice to Government and not say “hey, when’s this going to make a difference?” Because they’ve been told nothing will change for centuries, so, they’re Saving The Future!

You can read the rest of the propaganda piece at NPR, as that’s what it is, as they attempt to Justify this whole thing, but, expect a steady diet of this kind of “It’s For The Future!” stuff over the next few years with China Joe in office pimping climate change/crisis/emergency/doom.

Read: Hot Take: Even If We Do Something About Climate Emergency It’ll Still Be Hot »

If All You See…

…is a wonderful low carbon bike in an overheated world, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is This ain’t Hell…, with a post on your Wednesday feel good stories.

Read: If All You See… »

Good News: Obama, Biden, All Sorts Of Celebs To Appear On NBC Sunday To Pimp Vaccines

Is this supposed to be aimed at all the conservatives they media keep telling us are refusing to get a vaccine? I have a question about this, but, I’ll get to that in a minute

Biden and Obama to appear in TV special to promote Covid-19 vaccinations

President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama will appear in an hour-long NBC special on Sunday aimed at promoting Covid-19 vaccinations as they hope to convince hesitant Americans to get shots.

The special comes as the Biden administration races to get shots in arms and combat vaccine hesitancy, particularly after it was recommended that the US pause the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine over six reported US cases of a “rare and severe” type of blood clot.

The “Roll Up Your Sleeves” special will air at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday on NBC, according to a news release from the nonprofit Civic Nation. It is presented by Walgreens and was created by ATTN: in partnership with Civic Nation’s Made to Save initiative, which is a national public education and grassroots organizing effort focused on equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines and building trust in the vaccines.

Biden will make remarks during the special, and Obama will appear alongside former NBA stars Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal to encourage Americans to get vaccinated so they can help end the pandemic and return to their normal lives.

Biden’s chief Covid-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci will speak on “separating fact from fiction about the vaccines,” and will be interviewed by actor Matthew McConaughey.

The special will also feature former first lady Michelle Obama and a whole slate of celebrities, including Sterling K. Brown, Lana Condor, Billy Crystal, Eric Dane, Ryan Eggold, Dr. Vin Gupta, Faith Hill, Jennifer Hudson, Dale Jarrett, Ken Jeong, Joe Jonas, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Lopez, Demi Lovato, Joel McHale, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kumail Nanjiani, Ellen Pompeo, Amanda Seyfried, Jane Seymour and Wanda Sykes.

It’s being hosted by Russell Wilson and his wife Ciara, and virulent anti-Semite Jimmy Carter, serial misogynist Bill Clinton, and #NeverTrumper George W. Bush. Who, exactly, is this supposed to convince? If you’re aiming at Conservatives, do any of these folks have influence, other than perhaps Dale Jarrett for NASCAR fans? Rachel Maddow ran a show telling people to get vaccinated the other night: no conservative is tuning in to that. So, this seems to be aimed squarely at Democrat voters. Wasn’t the media telling us that it was all Conservatives who were being vaccine resistant?

If you want to aim at Conservatives, then you have folks like Gary Sinise, Kurt Russell, Gina Carano, Jon Voight, Cheryl Ladd, Christie Brinkley, Dean Cain, Bill Engvall, Tim Allen, Ted Nugent, James Woods, Gene Simmons, Kidd Rock, and others. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott. What’s Demi Lovato going to do, record a song using autotune and take another nearly naked selfie while yammering about “taking her body back”? Will JLO perform on a stripper stage? What dumb stuff with Fauci say?

Want to convince Conservatives? Don’t do that stuff. But, the special isn’t aimed at conservatives.

Read: Good News: Obama, Biden, All Sorts Of Celebs To Appear On NBC Sunday To Pimp Vaccines »

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