BLDGBLOG links to these
New Scientist and
Money articles about the impact of our world IT infrastructure on the environment. And let's just say, the environment is Not Happy.
http://bldgblog.blog...ure-of-humanism.htmlOne server alone, we read, has the "same carbon footprint as your average SUV doing 15 miles to the gallon. Yet, whereas the SUV is seen as a villain from the environmental perspective, the server is not."
By "server" I'm sure they mean the enterprise-class brutes your ISP is running 24/7 at the other end of your cable.
But still, an SUV?
As Money explained last summer, these "server farms" and "data centers" can each use up to "a small city's worth of electricity" – and most of that electricity goes toward "cranking up the air conditioning to make sure the computers don't literally melt themselves into slag."
The electricity of a small city? Holy hydroelectric, Batman! That's crazy bad. I had no idea my innocent surfing and DonationCoder addition was sucking down that kind of juice. Maybe I'll cut back on the pr0n.
What's really interesting is the tangent BLDG zips off on next: where does it make sense to build these humming shrines to Amazon and Google? The answers are surprising and innovative, and give me hope for the future. At least people are thinking about this now, and not when the Mad Max mutants are fighting over the last can of petrol.
Oh, and extra bonus points for teaching me a new phrase: "mouse potato".
