Do we need to look at climate change differently?
We hear a lot about the traditional lessening the use of fossil fuels. Is there a hidden issue no one is talking about?
Labour talked about a knowledge based economy. The IT industry has traditionally not been great environmentally. It is getting better.
The media like to report on data centres being built or the ones that were going to be built and for whatever reason isn't going ahead. Then push how they are environmentally friendly. Sure, they might be powered in a unique way that may be better than traditional means. But, I'd be sceptical on how much they know on what goes on day to day.
They create a lot of waste. A lot not biodegradable. IT equipment come with great metal work to run the cabling. This is often thrown out as it affects airflow. IT companies send parts to expand storage with each device boxed separately in an over sized box with anti static bags and polystyrene. Depending on the project you may now get a large plastic container with all of the disks for example. So things are getting better.
That storage example is why Facebook would be a better option if you are passionate about the environment, Not Twitter. The storage technology Facebook use is reliable and also shipped in a way that does not create much wastage.
It would be interesting debate/investigation to see if physical media which needs to be produced and eventually gets thrown out. Is better or worse than the current cloud streaming model. The streaming services are convenient but the amount of data still needs to physically take up space and in multiple places as it needs to be redundant so it will not be lost or become unavailable. Then add the social media platforms and the amount of data we are producing explodes.
Then move to A.I and things get worse as the processing requirements take up a lot of power. Often taking up more space to be able to accommodate the power requirements.
These two articles talk about how cities are generally warmer than regional areas due to concrete, amount of traffic etc. But also that data centres are increasing this again. One of these articles shows the solar ordinance (heat striking a certain area). It does they this needs to be investigated further.
Is waste heat from data centers affecting the weather? A new study says they are making their local environment hotter.
www.forbes.com
