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News & ArtsThursday, April 19, 2012
Enviro Amazon and Microsoft Attacked by Greenpeace Activists
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 10:41 AM
It has to do with the coal and cloud thing I mentioned the other day:
A Greenpeace activist hands out black balloons symbolizing electricity from coal plants in front of Amazon headquarters in Seattle, April 19, 2012. Other activists climbed the future headquarters building opposite Microsoft offices and hung a giant banner reading "Amazon, Microsoft, How Clean is your Cloud?" The environmental group is bringing attention to Amazon and other technology companies that rely on energy from coal to power their data centers for cloud computing.
- Greenpeace. Used with permission from Molly Dorozenski mdorozen@greenpeace.org.
1
Attacked?
I think you mean "Harsh advertising pointing out their anti-environmental ACTIONS to degrade Pacific NorthWest environment was DISPLAYED".
Nobody died because of the balloons. Other than the eagles which ingested them.
More than 1 percent of all phone services are hosted by coal-fed Amazon Clouds.
I think you mean "Harsh advertising pointing out their anti-environmental ACTIONS to degrade Pacific NorthWest environment was DISPLAYED".
Nobody died because of the balloons. Other than the eagles which ingested them.
More than 1 percent of all phone services are hosted by coal-fed Amazon Clouds.
2
Yeah, yeah. And I'm sure those protesters never use a computer. Or a cell phone. Or a television. Or put gas in their cars.
Fucking kooks.
Fucking kooks.
3
Because using lots of underutilized and less energy efficient computers is so much better for the environment than using fewer and more energy efficient computers in data centers.
4
Speaking of which, all you freeballing earth-children have your energy-saver control panels set to "sleep" after 10 min or so, right? And your power adapters/chargers on a power strip that lets you turn them all off with a single switch when not in use?
5
Actually, @4, you are supposed to shut down your computers and TV sets and unplug appliances if you're gone for more than an hour.
But you knew that, right?
Passive inductance, my man. Part of why power companies have a hard time turning your power on - you won't turn off most equipment and unplug it.
But you knew that, right?
Passive inductance, my man. Part of why power companies have a hard time turning your power on - you won't turn off most equipment and unplug it.
6
I give to Greenpeace every month, knowing their leaders' decisionmaking guarantees a certain amount of my contribution will help fund well-meaning but ineffectual stuff like this. Goes with the territory.
7
#2 / #3 / #4: Wow, so by "use cleaner energy instead of coal" you take that to mean "don't use electricity anymore".
Conservative thought processes are insane. How are you supposed to reason with people like that?
Conservative thought processes are insane. How are you supposed to reason with people like that?
8
I'm so sorry you're such a dumb shit, @7. Here, let me take you by the hand and explain it to you. In this country (as well as most of the world), using electricity is synonymous with burning coal. Maybe that will change some day 40 or 50 years down the line, but as it stands right now, that's exactly how it plays out.
10
@7 since Greenpeace opposes fossil fuels, nuclear power and most large scale hydroelectric operations "don't use electricity" is pretty much the take away.
Also, I don't have a source but I have to believe that the percentage of total US energy consumption that cloud computing accounts for has to be on the order of less than 1%. What I'm saying here is essentially this: there are bigger fish to fry.
Also, I don't have a source but I have to believe that the percentage of total US energy consumption that cloud computing accounts for has to be on the order of less than 1%. What I'm saying here is essentially this: there are bigger fish to fry.
11
Of course, staging this protest ins Seattle where none of the electricity in use is from coal fired plants -- and most is from zero CO2 emitting, renewable hydro -- is the absolute height of idiocy.
12
How much of that computing is stuff that would have otherwise been done less efficiently throughout the grid? The dramatic rise in cloud computing energy consumption as a percentage of the total is because we just started measuring it. Your ipad and the cloud uses less energy than your pc and home servers.
We need to applaud the movement toward data centers building their own green power generation into design.
We need to applaud the movement toward data centers building their own green power generation into design.
13
Both of these companies are sitting on huge piles of cash. Cash that could be used to finance alternative energy projects that would provide energy used for the Cloud. It would also give a nice boost to the economy during a time when construction is still in a slump.
So why aren't they doing it?
So why aren't they doing it?
14
I am pretty sure that Microsoft's US cloud data centers are in eastern Washington in part because of the close proximity to an abundance of hydropower. Didn't someone at the Stranger do a big write up about farming tax credits for server farms or something?
15
@11 - actually, that's not true. While far and away the bulk of our energy is locally produced, and hydroelectic, the entire Western US is one big grid. Because of this, we share our energy across state lines, and receive energy from others. A portion of the energy supplied to Seattle via the Bonnevile Power Administration includes coal energy.
http://www.seattle.gov/light/fuelmix/
Coal is a very small portion, but it's not accurate to say "none" of the electricity in use in Seattle comes from coal.
http://www.seattle.gov/light/fuelmix/
Coal is a very small portion, but it's not accurate to say "none" of the electricity in use in Seattle comes from coal.
16
@9
Not a solar cell in sight on that huge empty roof (yes, they are promising to do it, sometime, in the future).
They use diesel generators for backup in Quincy WA datacenters. Didn't even bother to put particulate filters on them. Why couldn't they have used natural gas instead?
Not a solar cell in sight on that huge empty roof (yes, they are promising to do it, sometime, in the future).
They use diesel generators for backup in Quincy WA datacenters. Didn't even bother to put particulate filters on them. Why couldn't they have used natural gas instead?
17
Kewl! I though I was surrounded by useless crap? Thank you Green peace for having brains. I love you! You rock!
18
@13 Because picking winners in the alternative energy business is hard, and it would probably just lead to more criticism from Greenpeace because their investment targets might not be chosen on the basis of profitability rather than greenness.
19
@7 I pay for 100% green energy from City Light and my work uses 100% green energy.
Adapt.
Or fry with Global Warming.
Adapt.
Or fry with Global Warming.
20
@15 no it isn't.
We specifically disconnected the Interties when we were designing the regional handling of the 2000, 2010, and 2020 coding effects.
There are soft links but the hard interties are disconnectable, so it isn't a true Western Grid, but a Super Grid of Grids.
Unless someone went in and rewrote the code, which is a bad idea in an earthquake and fire prone region, unless you're really really stupid.
We specifically disconnected the Interties when we were designing the regional handling of the 2000, 2010, and 2020 coding effects.
There are soft links but the hard interties are disconnectable, so it isn't a true Western Grid, but a Super Grid of Grids.
Unless someone went in and rewrote the code, which is a bad idea in an earthquake and fire prone region, unless you're really really stupid.
21
@16: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/201…
Then attack them for not having it constructed. Don't use intentionally false numbers.
Then attack them for not having it constructed. Don't use intentionally false numbers.
23
Pretty much all electronics require electricity; big fucking deal; good fucking work, Greenpeace, at maintaining your utter fucking irrelevance.
24
It figuratively kills me to say this but, Facebook has it right on this one. They are building data centers that are not only ahead of the curve technically, but also built on being energy efficient.
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