Since a lot of numbers have been thrown out in this discussion, I thought I'd a few more and give my humble personal opinion afterwards.
Jan 2012 - Apple shipped 50 million iPads.
http://ipod.about.com/od/ipadmodelsandterms/f/ipad-sales-to-date.htm
2012 - Annual income of $11,170 for a US family/household with 1 person is at the poverty threshold.
http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/12poverty.shtml
Jan 11 2012 - Indiana University study says 46 million Americans live BELOW the poverty line and that number will increase.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/11/poverty-america-likely-worse-report
All I know is that clean or not, energy costs money. So, calculate how much you spend on feeding yourself every year. Add your annual electricity bill to that. And don't forget your annual mortgage or rent payments. Does that add up to more than $11,170? or if you're a family of 4, does that add up more than $23,050?
There are 46 million who are making LESS than the poverty threshold - that's less than $11,170/yr for a household of 1 and less than $23,050/yr for a household of 4.
It would be a safe bet that the top worries for these households include where's my next meal coming from? how am I going to feed my children? can I make rent/mortgage payment this month?
And just to add to the numbers, if 46 million individuals (households of 1) were to make an annual income at the poverty threshold of $11,170, that would be $513+ billion dollars of the national economy flowing into their pockets.
As a Californian, I painfully remember when the state did not have enough energy resources to power the entire state so that it had to purchase power from the state of Texas for more money than I care to remember.
This year, as well as last year, our state can't balance it's budget. I really would hate to see what would happen to our state if we find ourselves both short of energy resources and the money to buy more energy from other states.
And to add to the percentages, 46 million is about 6.5% of the American public that's living below the poverty threshold.
And don't forget our national unemployment rate is 8.2% as of this past March.
That's 46 million Americans who:
don't pay income taxes
are on the power grid in some form or another unless you believe there are that many people living in cardboard boxes
more than likely have more pressing matters than what Apple is doing with energy at it's data centers anywhere
So what's my point?
46 million Americans (and counting) can't afford any "clean" energy solutions (mentioned in this thread) individually. And they will not contribute towards paying for any government "clean" energy solutions.
What's the environmental impact then of these 46 million people? And what does Green Peace or anyone else suggest we do about that?