the Foundation's Policy and Political Association
Guideline, which
was written by WMF Legal in the aftermath of SOPA to iron
out clear boundaries on activism, explicitly rules out any political
activism relating to environmental issues, stating:
> Policy and political associations should protect and advance Wikimedia’s
> mission “to empower and engage people around the world to collect and
> develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain,
> and to disseminate it effectively and globally.” Accordingly, we will not
> support causes unrelated to or inconsistent with that mission. For example,
> no support should be given to: environmental issues; [...]"
That can't be right, because there was a project to try to procure green
power when it was available, going back to at least 2009 if I remember
it's still ongoing but really hasn't made much progress because the
datacenters don't want to by renewables. They are less expensive to
produce than fossil fuel power, but tariffs still allow electric companies to
charge more for them, in order to speed their transition, supposedly.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sustainability_Initiative
Also, it should go without saying that people are less likely to be engaged
in producing free educational content when they are battling increasing
fires, extreme weather events, and floods from encroaching sea levels. I
guess whomever wrote "Accordingly...." in that Guideline didn't think of
that.