Facebook Fails Greenpeace Unfriend Coal Challenge, Keep the Pressure On

Some people (and companies) are really slow to learn. Facebook had the perfect setup -- over half a million cheerleaders, the help of clean energy experts at Greenpeace, and even the Executive Director of Greenpeace ready to help it go green and ween itself off coal. Supporters of the "Unfriend Coal" campaign creamed the world record for comments on a Facebook post in a 24-hour time frame with over 80,000 comments, showing that Facebook users want the internet giant to cut the coal.

But Facebook dropped the ball. Instead of making big announcements about how it would be cleaning up its own act, it focused on everyone else, with the announcement of a “Billion Acts of Green" Facebook app. Great app! Great project! But no word on switching from coal to clean, renewable energy, and that's what's really needed from Facebook. Facebook also announced its Open Compute Project, which could help other server and data centers to cut their energy use significantly, but with fast-growing energy demands, no amount of energy efficiency is going to make up for the IT industry's or Facebook's addiction to coal.

Of course, Greenpeace isn't giving up on Facebook yet. It has announced that it feels it's getting somewhere with Facebook and we need to keep the pressure on. "We are making progress talking with Facebook and pushing the company towards a real renewable energy plan. If you help us maintain the pressure on Facebook, it will only be a matter of time before Facebook announces that all our profiles, pages and posts will be powered by renewable energy!"

In particular, Greenpeace's next call to action is to visit Facebook's "Happy Earth Day" page and drop some comments encouraging the company to cut the coal. Rather than be rude about it, though, Greenpeace recommends giving the great blue giant some praise for what is has done before pushing it to do more. Here are some comment ideas from the great green giant:

• I 'like' Facebook, but I really ‘dislike’ coal. Please power my profile with renewable energy. http://facebook.com/unfriendcoal
• Congratulations Facebook – the Open Compute Project is a great start, but you won't be green until you choose renewable energy.http://facebook.com/unfriendcoal
• Congratulations on the Open Compute Project, but efficiency alone is not enough – an efficient data centre, powered on renewable energy is what we need! http://facebook.com/unfriendcoal

Now, beyond commenting, spreading the word further off of Facebook through your Twitter account is another action Greenpeace is promoting, and there's a fun new way to do so. You can get an Unfriend Coal "twibbon" for your profile picture. Check it out and go get one.

I'm heading over to leave my comment and get my twibbon now -- join me!

And, of course, if you aren't one of the 15,000+ Change members who have signed the petition to Facebook to unfriend coal, don't forget to sign it, too.

Photo Credit: MrTopf  via flickr (CC license)

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