Dirty data: Apple has the least-green data centers, says Greenpeace from Christian Science Monitor
Companies like Apple provide the cloud computing that has become a birthright in the digital age. But our insatiable demand for data has a steep environmental price tag.
By Maud Dillingham / April 21, 2011
BOSTON
If the Internet were a country, it would be the fifth biggest consumer of electricity in the world, according toGreenpeace.
That’s not just the electricity you’re using in your office or home. It’s the juice being slurped up by energy-hogging data centers operated by “cloud companies,” which store and provide data over an Internet computer network.In the case of Apple and other tech companies, the energy in question is provided by burning coal. And Greenpeace isn’t happy about it. With its "How Dirty is Your Data?" report released just in time for Earth Day, the crusading environmental organization looks at the carbon footprint of the top 10 global cloud companies: Akamai, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google,HP, IBM, Microsoft, Twitter, and Yahoo!
Apple uses the most coal power of these companies (54.5%), and is scheduled to open a data center in North Carolina this spring that will be powered mostly by coal and some nuclear energy, back in the spotlight after Japan’s nuclear crisis. The facility will use as much electricity as 80,000 homes. Other big coal consumers are Facebook, IBM, HP, and Twitter.
In contrast, Yahoo! and Google take pains to locate their data centers near renewable energy sources. Google in particular isinvesting in solar and wind energy projects.
Apple had no comment on the criticism by Greenpeace.
Read More: http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Living-Green/...
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By a company that hires over 400,000 employees to make all Apple products. And in factories that have little or no safety, or pollution control.
Employees are worked so hard and under poor conditions, that many are committing suicide? http://abcnews.go.com/Technol...
Sure could use those j0obs here in the USA couldn't we?
Some people spend an insane amount of time in front of their computer. I support Greenpeace,
We need to move aggressively toward cleaner energy sources like wind and solar. Coal needs to be fazed out - and quickly. Have a good night. Maybe we could pick this up again later...
You're claiming Apple buys up patents from inventors and holds onto them in order to maintain their monolopy, you have evidence of that?
Do a simple Google search. You'll find a plethora of data confirming this. It isn't a secret by any means.
Yes I do have a 2008 Macbook Pro, so I can confirm some of what you're saying from personal experience, I had to replace the logic board which the most expensive part of a computer on my Macbook Pro after only 2 years, and 4 months, and considering that is not a moving part, that's a part that should last a lot longer than that, ESPECIALLY in a computer that's the highest priced on the market! Apple's hardware has no greater longevity than that of Dell, HP or any other manufacturer, and considering their price point, that is damn criminal, that is robbing the public, and they should not be getting away with that!
What makes it even more despiciple is virtually all other computer manufacturers give you the maximum amount their computer can hold included in the price, Apple Does Not, you the maximum, you have pay extra for that, in the most overpriced computer on the market!
I work with both Apple, and Linux, I have a Toshiba with Linux on it, and the only reason I have not made Linux my exclusive operating system is because Linux lacks professional level photo editing programs which I need for my work, and Linux also doesn't have the professional word processing...
Yes I do have a 2008 Macbook Pro, so I can confirm some of what you're saying from personal experience, I had to replace the logic board which the most expensive part of a computer on my Macbook Pro after only 2 years, and 4 months, and considering that is not a moving part, that's a part that should last a lot longer than that, ESPECIALLY in a computer that's the highest priced on the market! Apple's hardware has no greater longevity than that of Dell, HP or any other manufacturer, and considering their price point, that is damn criminal, that is robbing the public, and they should not be getting away with that!
What makes it even more despiciple is virtually all other computer manufacturers give you the maximum amount their computer can hold included in the price, Apple Does Not, you the maximum, you have pay extra for that, in the most overpriced computer on the market!
I work with both Apple, and Linux, I have a Toshiba with Linux on it, and the only reason I have not made Linux my exclusive operating system is because Linux lacks professional level photo editing programs which I need for my work, and Linux also doesn't have the professional word processing, and presentation programs that Apple, and Microsoft have such as IWork (Apple), etc.
The main reason Apple Users like myself tolerate this scum bag manufacturer is because we have even less tolerance for Windows because Windows is a very dysfunctional operating system, and all the other computer manufacturers besides Apple impose Windows on their users, and yes you can take Windows off, and put Linux on as I did with my Toshiba Computer, however as I mentioned there are things that Linux lacks as far as programs, that's the only problem with that operating system.
If you don't need professional level photo editing, and word processing, and presentation programs, and you just need an operating system that's reliable for browsing the internet, and doing other basic things, Linux is really awesome, it actually tops BOTH Apple and Windows! It uses less resources than Apple, and Windows for example the most current version of Linux has a ram requirement of only 256MB so you could run the most current version of Linux on a 10 year old Dell, HP, Toshiba, or whatever, and Linux takes up minimal hard drive space. And because it uses minimal resources to run, I believe a computer with Linux on it will OUTLAST a computer with Windows, or an Apple Computer. A very good example of what I am talking about is, a computer with Linux on it will not run as hot as an Apple or a computer with Windows on it.
I do understand your point though, in some cases what you're saying is true, for example Microsoft has a version of their Office suite package for Apple, I don't if they have one for Linux. The office suite package version for Linux that most Linux users use is Libre. Libre contains word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet programs just like IWork, not as advanced as IWork though, basic package, works nicely though, very user friendly.
Below is the page of Apple's website for IWork incase your curious.
http://www.apple.com/iwork/