Greenpeace protester maneuvers banner into position (KCPQ / April 19, 2012) |
The environmentalist group Greenpeace has leveled its latest protests against Seattle-based tech giants Amazon and Microsoft.
The organization alleges that the companies’ remote data services, often referred to as clouds, utilize dangerous and unsustainable energy sources.
“It turns out the companies that give us the cloud keep all that data in huge warehouses called data centers, and those use lots of electricity, much of which comes from dirty, dangerous energy like coal and nuclear power,” Greenpeace’s Casey Harrell said.
The group is trying to pressure Apple, Amazon and Microsoft to use renewable energy to power their facilities— following the lead of companies like Facebook and Google.
As part of the protest, Greenpeace activist repelled off the side of a building adjacent to Amazon’s South Lake Union campus on Thursday.
While hanging over the city streets, they unveiled a huge banner shaped like Apple’s iCloud icon which asked “Amazon, Microsoft how clean is your cloud?”
Greenpeace also produced a parody commercial depicting Microsoft’s Cloud as a filthy, polluting coal plant in the sky.
Amazon and Microsoft have yet to publicly comment on the protest.
