Greenpeace Activists Call Apple's iCloud a "Dirty Cloud"

Courtesy of Greenpeace

How much material was wasted to make that costume?

Giant walking iPhones greeted Apple employees as they entered the company's headquarters in Cupertino this morning, where Greenpeace activists criticized Apple's iCloud for using "dirty power."

Demonstrators stood outside demanding employees and executives stop powering its iCloud using coal-fired power plants, and instead rely on renewable energy sources to operate the phone. The protest was part of a 24-hour action, which started with a laser projector at midnight, where protesters displayed Facebook and Twitter messages on Apple's front entrance. At 7:30 a.m. those same messages were broadcasted over a loudspeaker, operated by two activists who were locked inside a giant iPod outside the headquarters.

As far as we know, the giant iPod was removed by 10 a.m., after more than two hours of broadcasting outside the store. Two activists --- Brandy Palm, 29, and Elizabeth Donahue, 21 -- were hauled away in handcuffs, but no charges have been filed at this time, officials said.

Protesters were incited after Greenpeace two weeks ago published a new report dubbed "How Clean is Your Cloud?",  which evaluated energy sources used to power the data centers of 14 tech companies. The report concluded that, when operating at maximum capacity, Apple's new iDataCenter in Maiden, N.C., could easily use 100 megawatts of energy sourced from Duke Energy using coal.

Apple denied the claims, saying Greenpeace grossly overestimated the amount of power used by the 500,000-square-foot building, which it says uses no more than 20 megawatts at full capacity.

"We are on track to supply more than 60 percent of that power on-site from renewable sources including a solar farm and fuel cell installation which will each be the largest of their kind in the country," Apple said in a statement. "We believe this industry-leading project will make Maiden the greenest data center ever built, and it will be joined next year by our new facility in Oregon running on 100 percent renewable energy."

David Pomerantz, Greenpeace's international media officer, fired back at Apple, calling the company's response "disingenuous."

And obviously, plenty of other people out there agree; already more than 216,000 people have signed the organization's "Clean Our Cloud" petition, requesting the company make the switch to clean energy now.

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