razz
3-7-13, 9:16pm
Rarely is it discussed - the cost of all the energy to store, send and develop the resources that enable an internet. The carbon cost must be considerable as well.
Has anyone ever seen an actual amount of money and energy? We have become so reliant on the internet, is it sustainable?
Something to think about?
From:
http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-03-05/is-using-the-internet-as-carbon-heavy-as-flying
A book published last year, ‘Greening the Media’, reports that in 2007 emissions from electricity consumed by information technology were 2.5-3% of the total, and comparable with aviation, but this is not something my Transition group have yet discussed, nor something there seems much getting away from....
cell phones have their own distressing part to play, both in environmental and human terms. They rely on very many dangerous minerals and gases. Plus a core ingredient is coltan which relies on mining, mostly done in Congo, by enslaved and frequently raped workers who are victims of the civil war. Coltan is then transported to China to be smelted into tantalum. The money for it has funded a war in which 5 million people have died.
There’s a big debate about the carbon footprint of a Google search. Google and Facebook are big users of server energy. They use massive amounts of coal power, nuclear power and to a certain extent solar, but don’t explain publicly either the amount or the sources of all this energy. There are also massive server farms which process web data. When we connect to the cloud we’re not connecting to the sky; we’re connecting to massive machines that have an insatiable appetite for electricity. Cloud computing is a misleading metaphor because these server farms are all too material, in their work and their environmental impact.
Has anyone ever seen an actual amount of money and energy? We have become so reliant on the internet, is it sustainable?
Something to think about?
From:
http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-03-05/is-using-the-internet-as-carbon-heavy-as-flying
A book published last year, ‘Greening the Media’, reports that in 2007 emissions from electricity consumed by information technology were 2.5-3% of the total, and comparable with aviation, but this is not something my Transition group have yet discussed, nor something there seems much getting away from....
cell phones have their own distressing part to play, both in environmental and human terms. They rely on very many dangerous minerals and gases. Plus a core ingredient is coltan which relies on mining, mostly done in Congo, by enslaved and frequently raped workers who are victims of the civil war. Coltan is then transported to China to be smelted into tantalum. The money for it has funded a war in which 5 million people have died.
There’s a big debate about the carbon footprint of a Google search. Google and Facebook are big users of server energy. They use massive amounts of coal power, nuclear power and to a certain extent solar, but don’t explain publicly either the amount or the sources of all this energy. There are also massive server farms which process web data. When we connect to the cloud we’re not connecting to the sky; we’re connecting to massive machines that have an insatiable appetite for electricity. Cloud computing is a misleading metaphor because these server farms are all too material, in their work and their environmental impact.