This is NOT a national park.
It is a forest specifically planted to harvest wood and get re-planted. If the logging industry has not significantly damaged it, then putting some clean buildings and solar panels on a fraction of it won't either.
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New Objections to Apple's Irish Data Center Focus on Proximity to Nuclear Power Plants
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This is NOT a national park.
It is a forest specifically planted to harvest wood and get re-planted. If the logging industry has not significantly damaged it, then putting some clean buildings and solar panels on a fraction of it won't either.
Neither does Ireland. Spain does though, in Almaraz, just 100km from Portugal. Which means much of Portugal would also be excluded by Apple's self-imposed restriction.
Data-centres are typically lightly staffed. The respective salary expectations are probably a small factor in comparison with the cost of electricity, the amount of cooling required, the availability of suitable sites, and taxation concerns. Because of the cooler climates it's one area where Northern Europe has a natural advantage.
Many of them already working here in Apple! It's probably not a major factor in this case though (as above).
Here too. Sadly.
Portugal isn't all beaches, you know...
For example, Covilhã's datacenter. They have natural cooling, because it's a mountainous region. It's also a good location for both wind power and solar power. It runs on 100% renewable.
I saw Medicine Man too.
There are a few chemo-therapies that involve plants native to rain forests but this still seems like an overreach in support of conservation; there are plenty of good reasons to preserve natural environments without invoking a moonshot.
I'm glad you enjoyed the film. Never seen it myself, but as species are being killed off that are yet to be discovered you can hardly call it a 'moonshot'.
Here's a quick google:
http://www.rainforesteducation.com/medicine/medicines.htm
Just one page, perhaps you should research medicines that come from plants?
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The comment was made in regards to Apple, I personally would think the same of any Corporation, doesn't matter who they are, I mean I am dead against fracking but here in the UK the government and councils are not and they give planning permission for it... local people are NOT in support of that to say the least!
As for Apple new HQ, what was there before? Empty space? Other buildings? Just plain dirt?
Apple gets points for solar panel technology, but not for using obvious political games to get it's own way because it suites them.
But I still feel they can pick and choose as much as they want but they cannot just bully or lie their way into their decisions being accepted and them getting their own way, especially when it kills nature needlessly, because as stated their are sites already allocated to data centres, Ireland is a very high tech country considering the company's that have offices there, so I feel confident they would have suitable sites available as it's in the country's economy's best interest to.
Portugal isn't all beaches, you know...
For example, Covilhã's datacenter. They have natural cooling, because it's a mountainous region. It's also a good location for both wind power and solar power. It runs on 100% renewable.
Good to know, thanks.
Unfortunately, that wouldn't be an option; being within Apple's 320Km limit of a nuclear facility (Almaraz).
Good to know, thanks.
Unfortunately, that wouldn't be an option; being within Apple's 320Km limit of a nuclear facility (Almaraz).
Yup...
Must be prepared if Samsung wants to blow a nuclear plant just to hit Apple's data centers
You were so busy typing a response to my post you didn't bother to even read it -- or understand what I wrote.
Please read again and note the following:
1. I wrote the land "is for sale and developable according to the laws of Ireland."
2. I wrote that Ireland is "part of the EU, which does have strict environmental impact rules."
Now please tell me how those statements reflect a concept that a company can buy land and do anything they want with it as you are suggesting I wrote?
You want a datacenter to be very reliable for a long time and you also need a few people to keep things running. If a nuclear plant were to have a meltdown (e.g. Chernobyl) occur, you could be forced to abandon the facility. Keeping a reasonable distance from one can help reduce the risk of being effected to almost zero.
Most obviously, Apple wouldn't want to be seen near a nuclear facility with a power hungry thing like a datacenter. Many people would just assume the datacenter was using mostly nuclear power and the renewable stuff was just for show. Apple is all about image.
Actually I have.
There have been many medicines that have derived from plants in the past, particularly if you want to focus to cancer there are a handful of chemotherapy compounds that have roots in plant defenses against fugal attacks. We do not, however, have people wandering through the rainforest picking plants or stripping bark to extract these compounds from. Chemists synthesize compounds in laboratories that are similar to those naturally occurring in the plants. Bulldozing the rainforests today (which I would definitely never advocate) will not mean an end to any of these medications.
To be fair, you talked about undiscovered flora/fauna/insects. Frankly the future of pharmacology research doesn't lie in shotgunning natural compounds until we find something effective, it lies in modeling in-silico, genome mapping and interpretation, and personalized medicine - supercomputers and big data which data centers such as these can house (well the big data part anyway). Again, extinction of the rainforest doesn't prevent future developments.
I can think of many great reasons to preserve species but I feel that jumping to "it will cure cancer/aids" is alarmist.
Also, your credibility diminishes a bit in my eyes when you link a site with an obvious agenda. Dr Blythe is a politician and has very strong beliefs about the rain forest. I've done a lot of work with the Arbor Day Foundation but I wouldn't link their pages in a discussion like this, I'd find a more neutral source with the data I wanted to share. Just my opinion.
Nuclear is cheap, reliable energy that emits no CO2. Apple should be building its data centers WITH a Nuclear power plant, not running away from them. Sheesh.
It isn't an undeveloped piece of land, it is a tree farm. That picture looks to be a bit dated. Check out the current animal sanctuary and watershed.
https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.2870795,-8.8389397,1803m/data=!3m1!1e3
The article specifically mentioned "Wales" and then "the UK" as if they were two separate places, but what they meant was "Wales" and "England"
IDK. Maybe they're afraid of radiation randomly flipping bits in their RAM?
Seriously, it's probably because they're afraid of some disaster. I don't know why else they'd care.
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Exactly. Apple pretends like their stuff is so important. I'd place consumer cloud services lower on the scale of importance to mankind than almost all other products. iPhones are useful, but the profitable things involving them are just toys. This data center would be for hosting people's silly photos and video game save data. Maybe 1% of that data is work-related.
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That's an awesome-looking building.Portugal isn't all beaches, you know...
For example, Covilhã's datacenter. They have natural cooling, because it's a mountainous region. It's also a good location for both wind power and solar power. It runs on 100% renewable.
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IDK. Maybe they're afraid of radiation randomly flipping bits in their RAM?
Seriously, it's probably because they're afraid of some disaster. I don't know why else they'd care.
I also tought that.
But ECC exists for a reason.
You misread my first post, I said they COULD hold cures for cancer and AIDS, and considering you just confirmed in you own comment that plants have provide treatment for cancer I would say you are more certain of that then I am.
And I also stated a 'quick google' I didn't exactly investigate the full political agenda of the website!
And my point throughout has been that this is not the best argument (or even a very good argument) for conservation. There are a lot of things that COULD happen. There are many reasons to protect natural environments that are much more tangible.
(plus I don't think the forest in question is even a rain forest, more likely temperate deciduous although maybe Ireland has the requisite rainfall, I'm not that familiar with this region)
Sorry about misinterpreting your choice in source material.
In any case, it sounds like we just need to agree to disagree.
If you look at a map of Western Europe, you'll notice that there are many nuclear plants. If a 200 miles / 320 km zone around them is considered a no-go area then a lot of countries, certainly the ones with the best internet infrastructure, are 'out'. This makes it a bit of an unworkable condition.
To get an idea of the scale: Looking at Ireland (top left) 200 miles / 320 km is the distance from the southwest tip to the southwest tip of Northern Ireland (just above the 'L' in Dublin).
By the way, there are even more coal energy plants, particularly in the 'nuclear white spots' so there is most certainly always a power plant nearby, that won't be the issue in the EU:
Nuclear is not even slightly cheap. It relies heavily on government subsidies to process nuclear waste and even after that is rarely comparable to other forms of power in cost.
As for producing no CO2; Yes, well done. Now there's just the small issue of the waste material which is several magnitudes worse than CO2.
Cheap?
Yeah, until there is an accident like Three Mile Island, Fukushima or Chernobyl and a county or even half a state becomes uninhabitable. Oh and if you don't count in the cost of storing the radioactive waste in a safe place for a couple of hundred thousand years.
I think you misunderstood my point of mentioning the nuke plant. It wasn't about power, it was to point out the area is already industrialized, not pristine forest.
Many say the relationship between Ireland and the USA is stronger than the UK and the USA. To this day, many believe American money and contraband is what made the Easter Rebellion possible. From that, Americans are very well treated in Ireland and sweetheart deals are the norm. If you think Apple is getting a sweetheart deal, Intel has been operating semiconductor fabs in Ireland for over twenty years creating their product for distribution throughout Europe and the Middle East.
We could, of course, reduce human population by 90% or more, to get rid of the "useless eaters". You and me are supposed to go first whenever this proposition comes up.