Al Gore's appearance at Apple's shareholder meeting on Thursdays led to a variety of comments from shareholders about his record on the environment, according to CNET.
Apple's stance on environmental and sustainability issues was one of the largest concerns of the stockholders whom where present, followed by the large pile of cash that the company is sitting on. But comments about the former Veep led the way for the rest of the meeting.
Gore had been seated in the first row, along with the rest of his six fellow board colleagues, in which various stockholders then proceeded to either applaud or hammer his oft-talked about views on climate change.
During the first chance at audience participation several minutes in, a longtime Apple shareholder, who introduced himself as Sheldon, stood at the microphone and recommended that Gore not be re-elected to the board. Gore "has become a laughingstock. The glaciers have not melted," Sheldon said, referring to Gore's take on global warming. "If his advice he gives to Apple is as faulty as his views on the environment then he doesn't need to be re-elected."
Another shareholder shot up immediately after that to defend Gore and endorse that he be reelected as an Apple director. An environment proposal was then presented by nonprofit As You Sow for the second straight year, asking that Apple publicly commit to specific greenhouse gas reduction goals and publish a formal sustainability report.
As You Sow's rep, Conrad MacKerron, complemented Gore, but also issued him a challenge on not doing more to advise the company to set specific public commitments.
Neither Gore or any other Apple board members responded directly. As You Sow's proposal as well as another environmental proposal from Herrington Investments were shot down by shareholders.
In the end, Gore was re-elected with the rest of everyone else in preliminary results.
Image courtesy of Scrapetv.com
Quayzar
March 02, 2010 at 5:32pm
Firstly Al Gore never said he invented the internet. He was simply taking credit for writing the legislation that opened up the ARPANET to the world and thus helped paved the way for the modern internet. President George H. W. Bush was quoted at the time saying it would "unlock the secrets of DNA" as well as going on about free trade and other things. Not to mention he personally setup hearings on the matter as far back as '83 and was even talking about the need for high speed telecommunication networks as far back as the late '70s.Secondly Joseph Fourier in 1824 discovered the greenhouse effect, John Tyndall in 1858 discovered greenhouse gasses and Svante Arrhenius in 1896 first reported this quantitatively. This scientific evidence predates the understanding of the atom and was a contemporary of the first ever radio transmission in 1894. For that matter look at average temperatures in the last 100 years and you will see a steady increase in temperature. Granted I have seen Al Gore make a few mistakes on the matter (a few mind you) but the basic science is sound. Glaciers are melting and we are getting more precipitation on the east coast than ever before which since global warming hasn't shifted the global climate 20º+ yet we still have winter and guess what it snows in winter. Therefore if you have more precipitation due to the increased evaporation of the oceans and glaciers which is due to an increase in the global climate's temperature then we will get more snow even though the temperature is going up. Though in all fairness part of the record snow fall is El Niño's fault.I guess my basic point is that everything you just said was wrong, and that is why people listen to him. Granted he does make some good money, I'll give you that one but since we aren't communist I thought that was OK.
jimpinter
February 28, 2010 at 8:11pm
The guy who makes millions spreading lies about so called "man-made" global warming is the same guy who claims that he invented the internet!Why does anyone listen to this mega fool?
oldxonion
February 28, 2010 at 7:07pm
I can take Sheldon for a hike in the North Cascades and show him some disappearing glaciers. Wake up Sheldon.
It's noteworthy that Gore get's attacked and made fun of as a way to counter his arguments about the problem.
hjonck
February 26, 2010 at 2:48pm
Sad to see that a guy like Gore is on Apple's board. He has negative substance; he can not read a basic correlation graph between temperature and lagging carbon. Is the board composition tokenism? Probably. But hey, Steve churns out the goods so this has to be some marketing ploy...
