Apple just launched added new content to a suite of apps to address environmental issues and concerns–the apps are collectively named Apps for Earth.
[Related: Apple Debuts New iPhone SE, Smaller iPad Pro and More, at Last Town Hall]
In a Medium blog post, Apple’s vice president of Environmental, Policy, and Social Initiatives, Lisa Jackson, along with Carter Roberts, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund, detailed how the apps would contribute to environmental protection efforts:
With Apps for Earth, we’re helping to inform, engage and involve millions of people in global environment efforts through the fitness, education, entertainment, and gaming apps they use every day.
And we hope that for many, this is just the first step toward taking even bigger action in their communities and around the world to help the planet.
Within each app in Apps for Earth, is content that “highlights the value of conserving the world’s forests, oceans, fresh water, and wildlife, while addressing the dual threats of unsustainable food production and climate change,†explains the post.
One example of such content is new trivia questions concerning nature and conservation in the popular Trivia Crack app. Another–users can build a wildlife habitat to protect an endangered species in the SimCity BuildIt app.
Other apps that will feature this type of content include: Angry Birds 2: Best Fiends; Candy Crush Soda Saga; Cooking Dash; Cut the Rope: Magic; Dragon City Mobile; Disney Infinity: ToyBox 3.0; Enlight; Hay Day; Hearthstone; Jurassic World: The Game; Kendall & Kylie; LINE, LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum; Map My Run+; MARVEL Contest of Champions; Peak; Procreate; Recolor; Star Wars: Heroes of the Galaxy; Tabs & Chords by Ultimate Guitar; The Earth by Tinybop; VSCO; WWF Together; and Yoga Studio.
The post also cites some troubling facts about the environment and the planet:
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Populations of vertebrae species, which includes mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish declined by more than half in the last 40 years.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Forests are disappearing at the rate of 48 football fields per minute.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The world has less than 1% of fresh and accessible water.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Currently, more than 7 billion people consume 1.5 times more natural resources than the planet can supply.
Apple has led the technology industry in sustainability action. Its data centers are powered by 100% renewable energy. It also uses its own custom line of robots to remove the tiniest parts from old iPhones so that the parts can be re-used.