Facebook-Greenpeace Coal Conversation Gets Fun

by Zachary Shahan · 2010-09-27 17:00:00 UTC
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You are most likely reading this article on the internet. So, chances are good you have a Facebook account. Facebook has more than 500 million active users and, last month, U.S. internet users spent more time on Facebook than on any other website (including all Google sites combined) for the first time ever.

As a well-informed and engaged Change.org reader, you have probably also heard that Facebook's first data center, to be built in Oregon, is going to be primarily powered by coal. Not good news, since coal power is just about the dirtiest thing on the planet.

You would think that such a powerful company as Facebook, with such informed leaders, would be able to influence the power mix they are supplied with and would fight for clean power...Yes, apparently, more than 11,000 of you (Change.org users), hundreds of thousands of Facebook users, and more than 500,000 people, in total, have told Facebook that it can and should do more.

Nonetheless, Facebook hasn't budged and the back-and-forth conversation between the Executive Director of Greenpeace International and leading decision-makers at Facebook continues on. Facebook claims that it has no influence over the power mix it is supplied, while Greenpeace says that Facebook, being the huge client that it is, actually does have negotiating power and CAN influence change.

Greenpeace's latest effort to inform the public about this issue and push Facebook to do something more than say "we can't do anything" is absolutely brilliant, in my opinion. Greenpeace has created a super cute, fun and highly informative new video about the history of Facebook for this "Unfriend Coal" campaign. Check it out:

Greenpeace has gotten companies such as McDonald's and Nestle to change their ways—can it get internet giant Facebook too? I hope so, but Facebook hasn't shown any sign of relenting and stepping up to the clean energy plate yet.

Like the Facebook page and join Greenpeace's campaign today, if you haven't yet. You can sign a petition here and add your voice.

Photo Credit: research girl via Flickr

Follow Change.org's Environment page on Facebook and Twitter.

Zachary Shahan has studied society and the environment for years, writes on these issues for a number of blogs, and is now the editor of planetsave.com, ecolocalizer.com, and cleantechnica.com.
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