Apple’s iCloud is powered on the back of some seriously dirty electricity. That truly sucks. You know what else sucks? Cleaning dozens of balloons out of a cavernous Apple store after Greenpeace protesters attack.
The stunt, further confirming that Apple has very little left of its hippie rebel bandana spirit left, is now in Greenpeace’s crosshairs over its power policies. Apple is using coal power because it’s cheap. But it’s hard to defend this when you have enough cash on hand to buy all the coal in the world and turn it into a giant diamond hat. Plus, it’s just not very nice to the planet! Greenpeace argues Apple can do better:
Apple has the greatest potential to lead the sector in renewable energy and innovation,” said Gary Cook, Greenpeace International Senior Policy Analyst. “Their history of out-of-the-box thinking and huge cash reserves positions them as the best IT company to transform the sector.”
In other words, stop being cheapskates and use some solar juice. It’s a good point.
But the Apple Store invasion? We’re not sure that’ll really convince many people will sign on to a “Clean our Cloud” campaign when most people can’t even explain what “the cloud” is. Most companies have a hard time sticking to any sort of a coherent definition. What does stand out is just dropping off a shit-ton of black balloons inside a store. Will it get the message across? Probably not. Will it get a message across? Maybe! It looks vaguely protest-y, or perhaps just the first stage of a really depressive birthday party. Plus, there’s this:
A “cloud cleaning crew” in uniform is miming cleaning up the store using white squeegees and other cleaning materials, and other activists are changing the home screens of the computers to cleanourcloud.com. In San Francisco, activists are passing out business cards that say “We can’t really clean the cloud with a squeegee or a mop. But Apple can clean our cloud. Join Greenpeace and urge Apple to power our cloud with renewable energy. Find out how at www.cleanourcloud.com”
Most of the tourist mob in New York’s 5th Avenue branch probably thought it was just some strange American holiday. The Afternoon of Morbid Inflatables, commemorating the burning of the White House in 1814. [Greenpeace]