© Facebook
Coal is one of the dirtiest, most destructive fossil fuels in the world. The burning of it to produce energy is responsible for polluting the air and causing acid rain, releasing toxic heavy metals into the environment, and tainting soil and water supplies. Coal mining operations are also destructive to the land and environment around them, especially if not properly re-mediated.
Trends have been moving away from dirty fuel sources towards clean, renewable energies like solar and wind power. Facebook, however, has decided not only to contract with a company that derives most of its energy from coal, but also to market the operation as "green". The decision is both irresponsible and dishonest.
Yet millions of people from all walks of life utilize Facebook to network, buy and sell products, promote their businesses, and keep in touch with friends and colleagues. While some people are upset about what Facebook is doing, few will actually do anything about it. After all, why bite the hand that feeds you?
As far as social networking sites go, Facebook is arguably the most popular and most widely used. If someone has a problem with Facebook's corporate policy, there are few alternatives. So, most people will simply bite the bullet and carry on with their lives no matter how many bad decisions the company makes.
Regardless of how one feels about the source of energy for Facebook's data center, corporations are increasingly taking hold of people's lives as they monopolize and control key pieces of the economy and life. Everyone relies on their mobile phones, televisions, internet connections, credit cards, gas stations and fast food joints, which are all generally dominated by only a few big corporations. If those corporations make despicable decisions, it is becoming increasingly difficult to simply boycott them.
If people feel strongly enough to make any sort of positive change, they will have to be willing to make significant sacrifices which may disrupt the type of lifestyles to which they have become accustomed. And to those who are deeply upset about Facebook's latest announcement: you may just have to deactivate your account.
I blogged about this very thing after Greenpeace started throwing rocks. I am in the data center business and have been for 15 years. peripherally, the electricity business since power runs the data centers where the internet is maintained.
Coal is one of the most efficient generators of electricity. Per pound it cannot be beat. The downside is that it is dirtier than anything too. We like efficient, we like cheap. That's what that industry was built on.
Facebook is one of any number of companies who has looked at the building/piece/component of their SYSTEMS as the end all be all for green. It is planting daisies on a superfund site. The entire system needs to be considered, not just whether or not you have a LEED Platinum building that is fed by dirty power.
Just as the companies need to look at their SYSTEMIC relationships - so do the power companies. Austin Energy and San Antonio Electricity are some of the most progressive utilities doing their part to shift the system to lower carbon footprints. They are helping businesses to tap into the wind farms generating electricity in West Texas which is awesome. What is not so awesome is that wind is unreliable and electricity cannot be stored - at least at commercial levels, without honking lead acid batteries.
Even as solar gets more attention the land area required to produce one megawatt of electricity is enormous and that has had impacts on the ecosystems where the big solar projects have tried to locate. So if you need to secure the land area the size of connecticut to generate enough electricity to power 20 blocks in Manhattan, is it worth it?
If people are serious about being green they will look at nuclear power. That is the most efficient way to generate electricity with the smallest footprint and the lowest carbon footprint - zero. The last reactor was built 30 years ago in the US and you cant tell me technology hasn't changed in 30 years to support safer and better nuclear options. Look st this website - 99.5% of the technology required to build and run it didn't exist 30 years ago.
Bottom line - stop throwing rocks and start talking solutions.