During a commencement speech at Tulane University on Saturday, Apple CEO Tim Cook told the graduating class that his generation has failed them in a number of ways, including failure to progress on climate issues.
“In some important ways, my generation has failed you,” Cook said while at the Tulane campus in New Orleans. “We spent too much time debating, too focused on the fight and not enough on progress.”
“You don’t need to look far to find an example of that failure, here today in this very place in an arena where thousands nice found desperate shelter from a 100 year disaster, the kind that seems to be happening more and more frequently, I don’t think we can talk about who we are as people and what we owe to one another without talking about climate change,” he added to big applause from the audience.
“This problem doesn’t get any easier based on whose side wins or loses an election — it’s about who has won life’s lottery and has the luxury of ignoring this issue and who stands to lose everything,” Cook continued. “The coastal communities, including some right here in Louisiana, that are already making plans to leave behind the places they have called home for generations, and head for higher ground.”
Cook also urged the graduating class to push back on algorithms that pander to their interests, and instead focus on learning about new ideas and listening to the other side.
“There are some who would like to believe that the only way you can be strong is by bulldozing those who disagree with you,” Cook said after noting that some benefit from political chaos on issues like climate change. “We forget sometimes that our pre-existing beliefs have their own force of gravity. Today, certain algorithms pull toward you things that you already know, believe or like. And they push away everything else. Push back — it shouldn’t be this way.”
Watch above, via YouTube.
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