Greenpeace Activists Protest at Apple's Irish Offices over Data Center Energy Use

[Michaelgtrusa]

and what a truly sad reflection on the community as a whole. Whether you agree with greenpeace or not, the personal attacks on them and others here is astonishing. It makes me lose faith in humanity, if we can't even discuss important issues with open minds without resorting to insults and childish name calling, what hope do we have at anything?

I agree with you on the personal attacks, changing the nature of the beast seems unlikely at this point in time and their are more important issues to deal with such as this and the whole made in china issue.

 

[Jus11]

Those People deserve a High Five... In the Face... With a Brick...

Why is this message promoting violence still here, moderators? And why do people "like" it? Don't you think about anything?

Barbarism vs. civilization 1-0.

 

[parish]

Now I'm not saying that I believe it as I cannot think of many places around Cork that Apple can draw it's power from except the hydroelectric dam

Surely hydro-electric is a renewable, green, energy source?

 

[princeali]

its very good that they DO care about their environment and the companies and the Government cares also!*
here in Bahrain its shameful , the Government itself toxins the environment by the US MADE teargases and kills people *
Thanx US.*

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsbj9q6oao1qccsavo1_500.jpg

 

[LarryC]

I'd love to see every nation and every corporation tell green peace to go straight to…hades. (not in those exact words of course)

 

[Ciclismo]

Dear Greenpeace:

If you really want to make a difference, you should be protesting in Germany, where they're abandoning (clean) nuclear power for coal.

Apple, Microsoft, etc. do what is necessary for their business. In the absence of green alternatives, they have no choice in their use of power generation systems.

Funny thing is, Greenpeace were at the front of the "Anti-Nuclear" crowd. Now thanks to idiots like them, our nuclear power plants are being shut down before a proper alternative is available.

And as a result, the cost of power (at least here in Bavaria) has jumped 15%. I can afford it, but many families can't. However, it's not like the retards at Greenpeace care, they only interest themselves for environmental issues, not social ones.

 

[Ciclismo]

Why is this message promoting violence still here, moderators? And why do people "like" it? Don't you think about anything?

Barbarism vs. civilization 1-0.

Greenpeace does not shy from violence, such as ramming boats, damaging private property, or even assault on other human beings. A humorous light-hearted post is nothing in comparison.

A plant security guard was "slightly injured" by the activists as they entered. The guard was treated at the plant medical facility, the government spokeswoman said.

 

[hogo]

Can we run the data center on liquified green peace members? Two birds...
It's people!!!

 

[scottjl]

sorry greenpeace, you come of looking like a bunch of idiots out of all of this. not only do you not have the facts, but your illegal, and fanatical ways really don't paint you as the "good guys." just a bunch of clueless whiners.

and since when does apple have to bear the brunt for the world's ills? why aren't you out there protesting the chemical companies? the oil companies? the governments who allow this crap to go on and on? apple's a shiny target, but there are far bigger offenders you're completely ignoring. this screams more "publicity stunt" than it does for any actual care about the environment.

 

[firemedicmark]

lol i like protestors like this!

 

[MeanAndy]

Surely hydro-electric is a renewable, green, energy source?

Well ya it is. I just mean there's only one in Cork and the power is used for other places too. So i'm just wondering where else they get their renewable power from. The Apple HQ is fairly big with a lot of production line machinery, it must require a lot of power and the dam can only provide so much.

 

[rmanbike]

Duke Energy supplies to Maiden area, half which comes from nuclear and the other half from hydroelectric and coal. GP needs to get their facts straight

 

[brdeveloper]

When Apple screws up, they need to be held to account. But these days it seems like Apple is a choice target because you'll get your publicity out.

More specifically, when it comes to GreenPeace, I've got two major complaints.

The first is that they have assumed the mantle of judge and jury on environmental goodness, and the fact that companies aren't dropping their pants and opening the kimono to show them absolutely everything is proof, to them, that the companies are evil. Worse, very often they give high grades to "talks to us and promises to do good stuff" and low grades to "they won't talk to us so we're going to assume they'll do the worst." Take the toxic chemical in parts issue from a few years back. Every chemical analysis was saying Apple was among the best at reducing the use of these chemicals, but because they weren't setting forth grand plans to GreenPeace and making unrealistic promises, they got rated low.

On this specific issue - there are places where electricity is generated by solar, places where electricity is generated by wind, places by hydroelectric. And yes, places where most of the electricity is generated by coal. Sometimes, it's because there's no real practical solution. Other times, it's because the coal plant is there and the area isn't flowing with investment to justify new power plants. As near as I can tell, GreenPeace's position is that nobody should open a business in those places - meaning the economy won't get any investment to make it possible to build new non-coal power plants and leaving the people living there in poverty. But those are just people, and the welfare of people has never been a concern of GreenPeace.

Is it worthwhile raising issues of how efficient plants are, what they can do about reusing the heat given off by the servers and what it can do to generate its own energy? Yes it is. (And by all reports, Apple is setting a good example.) But instead, they use their own simplistic yardstick, and it's worse than useless. And they approach it, not by telling companies "hey, let's see what you're doing, what others are doing, maybe we can find ways of doing it better so everyone benefits" but as "you guys are all evil and we're gonna scream at you until you become not evil", which is not a good way to win friends and influence people.

Good argument. Agreed.

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Well, they're an American public company. I'm a stockholder. I've been an Apple user since 1990. From that day I got it. It didnt matter how bad things got, I believed that better ideas and design must prevail in the end. They did. And I'm sorry if you couldn't see it that way and you didn't throw a few dollars at them and buy some stock when you could. They owe YOU nothing. You And Apple have had a series of mutually beneficial transactions. I have invested heavily in them and have been rewarded.

If Apple has harmed someone or stepped on someone's rights to pursue their own happiness then by all means lets go get em because they're a menace. But until then let's quit drinking the kool aid from GreenPeace. They have no agenda?

You're a stockholder. And how about american non-stockholders? Apple is patriotic for them?

 

[Glideslope]

Could you possibly be more cryptic? Who are you replying to?

No.

 

[RSchot]

Greenpeace piggy backing Apple media attention

Great opportunity to educate the media about Apple's environment policy: http://www.apple.com/environment/

And by doing so, backfire on the hypocrites of Greenpeace.

Maybe -and that is an informed hint- the media should question the internal GP practices to protect the privacy of their "constituents" (customers) data and the efficiency of their infrastructure...

 

[zewazir]

Surely hydro-electric is a renewable, green, energy source?

Tell that the the west coast salmon industry. The hydroelectric projects built up and down the Columbia River drainage area has devastated salmon populations.

Every power source has its good points, and its drawbacks. That includes solar, wind, nuclear, hydro, coal, etc.

 

[santybm]

My message

I though I would write and send in a message through Greenpeace's form.: Unfortunately it seems that I also signed the petition... at least the CEO's will get one good message.

 

[MacinDoc]

Surely hydro-electric is a renewable, green, energy source?

Renewable, yes, but whether it is "green" depends on how you define the term. Bacteria growing in reservoirs upstream from hydroelectric dams produce an enormous amount of carbon dioxide, in some cases more than that produced by thermoelectric power plants. And the reservoirs also often destroy unique habitats, as was the case in the Three Gorges Dam in China, which affected the habitats of more than 300 species and destroyed the habitat of the endangered Yangtze River Dolphin.

Funny that when countries negotiate about greenhouse gas emissions, greenhouse gases emitted from bacteria growing in reservoirs upstream from hydroelectric dams are not included in the calculations, presumably because they are from a natural source and because they are hard to measure. However, without those reservoirs, those bacterial colonies and their carbon dioxide and methane emissions would also not be present.

 

[blinkin182]

I'm sure the Germans will be thrilled to be compared to cold war era Soviet Union. What's next, a Yugo to Mercedes comparison?

There is actually a new Yugo coming out. It adds a rear window defroster. Keeps your hands warm when you push it.




Mike

Huh, I don't think you got my point... I meant a nuclear disaster affects a bigger area than just a single country..

And actually, East-Germany (or German Democratic Republic) was a communist country, under the influence of USSR for 40 years. Some of these power plants were Russian built...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Germany#East_Germany

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We seem to have wandered off-topic, but here goes.

That link you supplied says, "...most of those affected received relatively low doses of radiation; there is little evidence of increased mortality, cancers or birth defects among them; and when such evidence is present, existence of a causal link to radioactive contamination is uncertain.". It's thought the total number of deaths from Chernobyl is 61 people (including 31 from the initial explosion). Remember, this is by far the worst nuclear accident.

Of course there were other effects. Somewhere from 100,000 to 200,000 abortions were carried out on women from Scandinavia to Italy, who were worried about the effects of the radiation on their unborn children. This is the well known media panic effect.

Worldwide, no other power source is as safe as nuclear, the record is clear. For the amount of electricity produced nothing comes close, not wind power, not hydro power not solar power and certainly not coal or oil. Look it up. And we're talking about the old technology of second generation nuclear power which has problems - though nothing as bad as what's commonly thought.

Third generation plants are coming into use and fourth generation plants such as IFR, see here, promise to solve all of the problems of nuclear power and provide incredibly cheap electricity.

Anybody who's serious about Man-Caused Global Warming (I'm not, BTW) should want nuclear power. At least it will get rid of those dirty coal fired plants.

Although, I am not sure I agree with the estimation (or the scientific evidence) of how many people were truly affected by the nuclear incident (there are many different reports with different conclusions). I do thank you for the interesting links about next generation nuclear power plants, it did open my eyes to the advances made in nuclear power plant technology. It's a shame they seem to have been abandoned though.