On Sunday last (21/10/10) the Irish government announced the IMF / ECB bailout plans. This was already the word on the street for the previous week and the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen had, on more than one occasion, vehemently denied any plans for an IMF bailout. Yet again, more lies. The IMF brigade were apparently just here on a friendly visit over the previous days and were shacked up in the swanky Merrion Hotel, conveniently located a spitting distance from the back door of government buildings. But the charade couldn’t be kept up for too long.

I was watching the news develop online via Twitter when it was announced a press conference would take place after 8pm with some news from the government. It’s unusual of course for our politicians to work on a Sunday, so this it would seem was the admission of what the IMF were really here for (as if we didn’t know).

I switched on the television and flicked around to see what was being said. BBC and Sky News were covering the story for an hour previous and people wondered on Twitter if RTÉ was going to announce that they would be covering it.

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This is sure to ruffle some feathers! [ <-- that would have been a better joke if this was about Twitter! -ed (me!)]

So Greenpeace have gone after Facebook with this, I would say, intentionally childish video. It makes it’s point well though. These new super companies (such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft..) are building new infrastructure for their services and they have the money to do so. They are doing this at a time when there is a need to roll out sustainable infrastructure and as such they should lead by example here. Tech industries with a big stake in the internet are one of the few industries which are expanding at present and they have a great opportunity to show how it can be done in a way that is both sustainable and ethical.