There is a broad understanding for the need to fly less, as the aviation industry accounts for more than 2% of global emissions. Yet the data centres we depend on for computing already account for more than that, by some estimates up to 4% of global emissions.

But there are few calls or campaigns to compute less. If anything, it would appear that humankind has decided the best way forward is to compute more.

We are quicky becoming a generation of… generation.

Generate more images and video, stream your television shows, record your meetings, surveil your employees and customers, snap 10 photos of every scene to make sure you get the perfect one. Run it through an AI filter. Save everything in the cloud indefinitely. Keep feeding the generative tools with all that content. Rinse and repeat.

Except don't rinse.

All the while, oblivious governments are subsidising the establishment of more data centres to the detriment of local communities.

The data centres are the factories of our time. But we can not see them or their carbon footprint, so they are very easy to ignore. So we do. If we can stick with calling them clouds they even feel fluffy.

"A 2018 paper by researchers Lofti Belkhir and Ahmed Elmeligi forecast that computing would exceed 14pc of global emissions (based on 2016 levels) by 2040."

That was before generative AI.

« Data processing and storage has such a large carbon footprint for three reasons.

First, servers require electricity to run. Second, they need to be kept cool, which uses more power and also water. Third, the equipment itself is made from expensive resources and needs to be repaired and replaced.

“Computer hardware contains rare earth minerals and all sorts of stuff shipped from all over the world,” says Craven. »

« “One of the reasons why networking emissions are so high is because there is so little desire and capability to switch machines off because it will increase what we call the latency,” says Hussain.

Society demands that everything happens immediately, which means cloud services run constantly. “Everybody keeps everything humming at peak mode, just in case,” adds Hussain. »

A generation of generation. I mean, at least it's catchy, right?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/30/silicon-valley-data-giants-net-zero-sustainability-risk/