The Environmental Cost of Information
There is a discussion and good references to US reports etc. on the environmental cost associated with server farms and the ICT infrastructure. Some of the facts are quite astonishing! There is talk of carbon offsets for server farms from Computer, Society and Nature but I am not up on the politics related to the discussed solutions.
- Serving Up Energy Efficiency, Market-Style via 2 Steps Forward Blog
- Report (pdf) - High-Tech Means High-Efficiency: The Business Case for Energy Management in High-Tech Industries
I discussed the environmental cost of data earlier and I am glad that folks who are way smarter and more knowledgeable than I am on those topics are dedicated to understanding infrastructure from an environmental perspective.
Infrastructures are not completely invisible, and do require a significant amount of material stuff, geography and energy to operate. It’s just we don’t really think about it when surfing about looking for & doing stuff!
I wonder if it is possible to fly around with sensors that detect high energy use and map energy guzzling hotspots! That would be a fun job!
