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Amazon Still Lags Behind Apple, Google in Greenpeace Renewable Energy Report (greenpeace.org)
Amazon's cloud-computing unit says that one day it will rely solely on renewable power. But Greenpeace reports that a ramp-up in data-center construction in Virginia, where electricity comes mostly from coal and nuclear plants, makes that goal elusive. From the report: Apple, Google, Facebook, and newcomer Switch are taking some of the greatest strides towards 100% renewable energy, while companies such as Netflix, Amazon Web Services, and Samsung are lagging. The findings in Greenpeace USA's report outlines the energy footprints of large data center operators and nearly 70 of the most popular websites and applications. "Amazon continues to talk a good game on renewables but is keeping its customers in the dark on its energy decisions. This is concerning, particularly as Amazon expands into markets served by dirty energy," said Greenpeace USA Senior IT Analyst, Gary Cook. "Like Apple, Facebook, and Google, Netflix is one of the biggest drivers of the online world and has a critical say in how it is powered. Netflix must embrace the responsibility to make sure its growth is powered by renewables, not fossil fuels and it must show its leadership here," continued Cook.
Its simple: companies ruled by multiple small shareholders are ruled by the greed of the shareholders, because usually the shareholders want to make more money e.g. because they are pension funds or the shareholders want to sell off their shares at a higher price.
Worrying about your pension is greed?
Gary realized this and hopes that these stories will cause enough negative PR that they will be forced to go green.
I'm not sure outside the greens echo chamber that many people or companies care about this - at least to the point where they want to spend more money or lose reliability. For example, I don't know many people or businesses that will read this story and say "well fuck you Amazon, I am moving to Google or Switch (whoever they are) for all my cloud needs."
Or how many will say "now that I read this, I am leaving Netflix and going back to TimeWarner".
But, these CEO's are all in the same echo chamber so a call out like this might matter. It's not something most normal folks care about enough to make a deciding factor on whom to do business with.
Look, a solar panel never makes in it's usable life the amount of energy it takes to produce
That hasn't been true for several years now. By 2020 it's estimated that solar panels will pay back all the energy they've ever taken to manufacture all of them.
the same with wind power.
Wrong again. Did you actually bother to research any of this? 20 Seconds on Google would have corrected your false assertions.
A coal plant returns the power it took to build with all parts in less than a month.
At the cost of dumping massive amounts of pollutants (including CO2) into the atmosphere for decades. When coal actually has to pay for the full energy (and financial) cost of mitigating the pollution it costs then you might have a fair comparison.
Look, a solar panel never makes in it's usable life the amount of energy it takes to produce, the same with wind power. Do the math with cost of production and construction. It NEVER works.
The internet disagrees with you. On both points.
Do you have links or other supporting information you can cite?
If not, consider changing your position.
Spreading these sorts of lies will only hurt our efforts to avoid a real and imminent crisis.
Oligarchy *is* better than Democracy, if your goal is to do something that fits the needs of a small number of people (specifically, the oligarchs).
You must be living in an alternate universe and just collided with ours. Because "global warming as a perpetual myth" doesn't exist here, there are just more people critically not accepting it as a blanket truth. There's your difference, if you can figure it out.
Om, nomnomnom...
Who the hell cares what greenpeace says ? I do care about nature but i certainly pay no attention to what greenpeace says. And hippies in general.
They aren't a scientific institution, they are a lobby group for simpletons who cannot abide by the conclusions of scientists when they differ from their religious preconceptions. They are rather anti-science. They fish arguments from fringe individuals and see most scientists or engineers or physicians as suspects and in collusion with some vague plot from the industry they consider a priori as evil.
I liked them when they were defending the whales but nothing more.
Actually, finding out what to do to favour responsible behaviour in the industry and what to buy is extremely complicated. You need a lot of input from a lot of different kind of good experts. And the conclusions are not always intuitive.
Like when i read that depending on where you live driving an electric car pollutes more than driving a diesel. Or in some places installing solar panels isn't green because of the configuration of the electric grid. The answers are never simple.
That is why we need robust institutions with their own experts. As independent as possible.
Greenpeace hasn't had credibility since the 1980's. It's all about filling someones pocket at the expense of fear mongering, it's also the same reason why people are being more critical of environmental groups. There's a reason why in Canada people who live outside of Toronto label it a watermelon organization. That's communist and anti-industrialist on the inside, environmentalist on the outside before some braindead nut starts screaming "racism." Their absolute insane brand of environmentalism also gives life to garbage like the Line 9 protests.(There is more garbage on it, just search) Where environmentalists started screaming about the "doom of the environment" because the direction of flow for the pipeline was reversed. I'm not even kidding, they were protesting a pipeline changing the direction of transfer because a newer and safer one had been built -- and this one would be used at a lower capacity.
Then again, this is the same environmentalism that also gave birth to the protests against pipelines and transporting goods by rail car. Think on that for a second, they're happier having said goods transported by transport trucks.
Om, nomnomnom...
Greenpeace do a lot of good work. Their policy papers on renewable energy are quite influential with governments, at least in Europe. There is a lot of good science and research that goes into them.
That's partly why people try to smear them so much. That and the strange myth that environmentalism is trying to make Americans poor.
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