Top news: Protests, gatherings and actions in remembrance of Chernobyl victims all around the world; After many calls for a clean energy policy implementation and an embarrassing silence Facebook starts to answer Greenpeace questions; CIA goes green!

© Prometeo Lucero / Greenpeace - Twenty Greenpeace activists assemble the word “¡No!” (with the radiation symbol inserted into it) out of one thousand candles at the Plaza Lerdo, in central Xalapa.

#Nuclear: A great number of protests and gatherings related to the Chernobyl anniversary took place all over the world: in Poland the opponents of nuclear energy protested at the Ministry of Economy, with Jan Haverkamp from Greenpeace speaking at the event. In Hong Kong, 10 Greenpeace activists set up a red phone booth in the center of Hong Kong with instructions to call the Environment secretary and ask for a phasing out of nuclear power. In the Philippines, Greenpeace activists demonstrated wearing black and yellow masks. In Italy Greenpeace activists raised 2,000 crosses in the Coliseum in Rome in remembrance of Chernobyl victims; this came on the same day Silvio Berlusconi announced that nuclear energy is the “future of the world”. Other activities in Belgium, Finland, Russia, Brazil and Switzerland were reported by media globally.

#Cool IT: Although Facebook didn’t comment on our World Record making 80,000 comments to a post in 24h, and failed to meet the Earth Day challenge, they did manage to send out a general response outlining a number of steps they intend to take in order to be more green.

Facebook claims to have taken Greenpeace’s suggestion to share more information about its data centers, and as a result it will be sharing more information — like estimated facility level Power Usage Effectiveness (a measure of data-centre efficiency)  and Water Usage Effectiveness — this summer on Facebook.com/green. However, the Greenpeace campaign will continue, because Facebook still hasn’t committed to disclose their data centres' emissions, total energy use or energy sources, nor have they committed to a plan to power their operations on renewable energy – although they have stated that they will consider “carbon impact” in their future infrastructure decisions. Facebook also said this year it will host three fellows from the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corp Program.

Facebook said that it will consider the “carbon impact”, as well as other criteria, for the location of its future data centers going forward. Thus, Facebook declared it will take Greenpeace up on its offer to provide the company with its expertise on energy sourcing for data centers.

The response Facebook sent us fits perfectly with what the US president Obama highlighted during his speech at Facebook headquarter in Palo Alto on 20 April, asking the US companies to invest in solar and wind, and to approach the energy issue in a new way with a long term plan for energy policies. This is another signal, sound and clear, that the world is ready to undertake the Energy [R]evolution!

#Climate change: Even though Facebook failed to announce that they were going to unfriend coal we did get news from another organization. On Earth Day we got the  news that the whole world was waiting for: CIA is going green! The US Central Intelligence Agency issued a press release on the Earth Day that explained how the American Secret Service avoids energy wastes and save costs through fire.

According to the 20 April CIA press release: “The practice of shredding and burning classified papers—often referred to in movies and books as “burn after reading”—is one of several ways the CIA conserves energy, reduces its impact on the environment, and lowers costs through its sustainability efforts.”

”Exhaust from the agency’s on-site incinerator generates steam to heat water at CIA headquarters. And in addition to saving fuel, that process reduces the amount of waste — which would otherwise be destined for landfills.”

It seems that the US agency intends on fixing the problem of classified information leaks in an environmental friendly way; will it be tough times for Wikileaks if CIA goes green?!