Wow, everyone’s piling onto Amazon these days. The latest fight Amazon’s picked with someone (or vice versa) is with, of all organizations, Greenpeace. Seeking Alpha reports that the environmental organization is upset Amazon hasn’t committed to moving to 100% green energy for its data centers the way other big data users like Google, Apple, and Facebook have. Even Yahoo and Microsoft have been making improvements, but Amazon hasn’t seen the need.
So, Greenpeace decided to stage a protest. And since Amazon doesn’t have any ships they can row dinghies in front of or send scuba divers to sabotage, they chose the time-honored “one-star [review] nuclear option” instead. In its campaign message, Greenpeace writes:
HELP flood Amazon.com with 1-star reviews for their first ever smartphone, the Amazon Fire.
Why the Fire? The recently released Fire phone’s major boast is its unlimited cloud data storage … but there’s a BIG catch. Unlike Apple’s iCloud which is powered by 100% renewable energy, Amazon’s cloud data centers are run on dirty energy like coal, gas and nuclear power.
And so the Fire Phone got over 1,000 1-star reviews in just a couple of days.
While I imagine this is helping get the message out both to Amazon and to consumers, I can’t help thinking that if they were going to choose a protest product, they probably ought to choose one that people actually care about if they want to have any real impact. The Fire Phone’s ship was already sinking without Greenpeace scuba divers drilling holes in the bottom of it.
Predators always look for weak or weakened prey. The Amazon Fire fits that description. Even though it might have failed on its own, GP can credibly claim a “kill.”
Further evidence that “the end justifies the means” is an ascending ethic.
Don’t laugh — given the amount of taxpayers’ money that gets to Greenpeace in one form or another, you’re probably paying them for this.
Is the one thing these Amazon detractors have in common is stupidity?
B. Minata,
Greenpeace is making a point that suits their needs. More clean energy usage by the big guys would be a good thing. The more money invested in clean technology will bring the overall cost down for us little guys.
However, greenpeace has no scruples about how they get their messages across and if all those people involved in making and selling these phones lose their job, no problem, they are just collateral damage.
There you said it: “Greenpeace has no scruples about how they get their messages across.”
This is why Greenpeace will always struggle to get the majority of people on board. Their guerrilla tactics (in spite of their good intentions) scare the average person away.
Amazon will probably start up a new review system to combat this sort of guerrilla tactics
1) Verified purchases
2) Unverified purchases (in the past these were trustworthy but now ‘who knows`, trust at your own peril)