Facebook: Unfriend coal
Even before the movie about the founders of Facebook premiered, a sarcastic spoof movie about Facebook has hit the internet. The creator of movie is non other than Greenpeace.
Greenpeace took taken the opportunity to create their own short film, “Facebook: Unfriend Coal” about how Facebook has chosen dirty coal power instead of clean energy.
The 2 minute animated video with child-like drawings referred to Facebook as the “so coal network”.
Recently, Greenpeace in an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg question his decision to locate Facebook’s data center in Prineville, Oregon.
Facebook responded to the letter saying: “It is simply untrue to say that we chose coal as a source of power. The suggestions of ‘choosing coal’ ignores the fact that there is no such thing as a coal-powered data center. Similarly, there is no such thing as a hydroelectric-powered data center. Every data center plugs into the grid offered by their utility or power provider. The electrons powering that data center are produced by the various sources (e.g. hydro, natural gas, coal, geothermal, wind, etc.) the provider uses in proportions similar to the mix of sources used.”
Though the movie is harsh and sarcastic, it managed to bring out a few giggles out of me. Check out the Facebook: Unfriend Coal video at YouTube.
Greenpeace along with its 500,000 supporters on Facebook reminds Facebook to stop using coal to power its Data center, with coal being the largest source of global warming pollution.
Facebook got a lot of support from locals when it decided to open a data center in Prineville, Oregon but also came under criticism from environmentalist for its plan construct coal-powered data center. A campaign to get Facebook to “Unfriend Coal” started soon after Facebook announced its plan.
Shortly after beginning works on the data center, Facebook made another announcement to the dismay of environment activist about doubling the size of its data center at Oregon.
The Facebook campaign to “unfriend coal” has grown to half-a-million supporters this week.
Greenpeace regularly uses Facebook to engage its supporters and their friends to hold corporations accountable for their environmental impact,” wrote Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo in an open letter to the founder and chief executive of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. “Facebook is uniquely positioned to be a truly visible and influential leader to drive the deployment of clean energy.”
Naidoo also urged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to “exercise bold and immediate leadership in addressing climate change” for the interest of the Facebook, its users, and our planet.
Though it is unlikely for Facebook to take immediate decision or action to “unfriend coal” at its data center, it is taking up the issue of energy conservation into consideration, according to their blog post.
“Have a break. Have a Kitkat.” Who does not know this popular tagline by one of Nestle’s wide array of chocolate bars? Almost everyone knows it by heart. But have you ever pondered on what a Kitkat bar is made of and where Nestle got the ingredients?
Nestle is in hot water because of using palm oil in its Kitkat bars. There is nothing wrong with using palm oil per se. However, the problem lies in where Nestle is getting its palm oil. Because the company uses a lot of palm oil for its many products, the supplier, Sinar Mas, cleared out parts of protected Indonesian rainforest against Indonesian laws.
Rainforest are important to the survival not only of animals living there (like the endangered orangutans which have been displaced because of Sinar Mas’ actions) but also ours. Rainforests convert majority of the carbon dioxide in the world to oxygen which we can breathe.
Greenpeace International, a well known environmental activist group, brought this exact issue to Nestle’s attention through the company’s Facebook fan page. Now the page is packed with comments filled with hate and disgust. Some vowed to boycott Nestle products this Easter. Nestle had initially threatened to delete comments that used spoof versions of Kitkat and other Nestle logos (It actually erased some comments). This only made fans feel that the company was not listening.
In response to this, the company released a statement that they have stopped working with Sinar Mas and that it will start to use sustainable palm oil (palm oil that did not cause rainforest destruction) starting 2015, a whole 5 years from now.
As Ollie Orangutan commented on Nestle’s fan page, “A Kitkat lasts seconds. Extinction is forever.” So, will you be eating a Kitkat before Nestle starts using sustainable palm oil?
