hscc

the-staggering-ecological-impacts-of-computation-and-the-cloud.md (6903B)

---

 <https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-staggering-ecological-impacts-of-computation-and-the-cloud/>
 
 > Anthropologist Steven Gonzalez Monserrate draws on five years of
 > research and ethnographic fieldwork in server farms to illustrate some
 > of the diverse environmental impacts of data storage.
 >
 > [···]
 >
 > The words you are reading are a point of entry into an ethereal realm
 > that many call the “Cloud.”
 >
 > [...]
 >
 > But just as the clouds above us, however formless or ethereal they may
 > appear to be, are in fact made of matter, the Cloud of the digital is
 > also relentlessly material.
 >
 > [···]
 >
 > To get at the matter of the Cloud we must unravel the coils of coaxial
 > cables, fiber optic tubes, cellular towers, air conditioners, power
 > distribution units, transformers, water pipes, computer servers, and
 > more. We must attend to its material flows of electricity, water, air,
 > heat, metals, minerals, and rare earth elements that undergird our
 > digital lives. In this way, the Cloud is not only material, but is
 > also an ecological force. As it continues to expand, its environmental
 > impact increases, even as the engineers, technicians, and executives
 > behind its infrastructures strive to balance profitability with
 > sustainability.
 >
 > [···]
 
 ## Cloud the Carbonivore ##
 
 >
 > Heat is the waste product of computation, and if left unchecked, it
 > becomes a foil to the workings of digital civilization.
 >
 > [···]
 >
 > In North America, most data centers draw power from “dirty”
 > electricity grids, especially in Virginia’s “data center alley,” the
 > site of 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic in 2019. To cool,
 > the Cloud burns carbon, what Jeffrey Moro calls an “elemental irony.”
 > In most data centers today, cooling accounts for greater than 40
 > percent of electricity usage.
 >
 > [...]
 >
 > While some of the most advanced, “hyperscale” data centers, like those
 > maintained by Google, Facebook, and Amazon, have pledged to transition
 > their sites to carbon-neutral [...] , many of the smaller-scale data
 > centers that I observed lack the resources and capital to pursue
 > similar sustainability initiatives.
 >
 > [...]
 >
 > if the entire Cloud shifted to hyperscale facilities, energy usage
 > might drop as much as 25 percent.
 >
 > [...]
 
 Mais rendu là, ferions nous face au [Paradoxe de
 Jevons](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradoxe_de_Jevons)?
 
 > the Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline
 > industry. A single data center can consume the equivalent electricity
 > of 50,000 homes. At 200 terawatt hours (TWh) annually, data centers
 > collectively devour more energy than some nation-states. Today, the
 > electricity utilized by data centers accounts for 0.3 percent of
 > overall carbon emissions, and if we extend our accounting to include
 > networked devices like laptops, smartphones, and tablets, the total
 > shifts to 2 percent of global carbon emissions.
 >
 > [...]
 >
 > In some cases, only 6 to 12 percent of energy consumed is devoted to
 > active computational processes. The remainder is allocated to cooling
 > and maintaining chains upon chains of redundant fail-safes to prevent
 > costly downtime.
 >
 > [···]
 
 ## Cloud is also quite thirsty ##
 
 >
 > the Cloud is also quite thirsty. Like a pasture, server farms are
 > irrigated.
 >
 > [...]
 >
 > This shift from cooling air to cooling water is an attempt to reduce
 > carbon footprint, but it comes at a cost. Weathering historic drought
 > and heat domes, communities in the western United States are
 > increasingly strained for water resources.
 >
 > [...]
 >
 > some politicians are now openly opposing the construction of data
 > centers, framing the centers’ water usage as inessential and
 > irresponsible given resource constraints.
 >
 > [...]
 >
 > Data centers consume millions of gallons of Arizona water daily.
 >
 > [...]
 
 Qu'en est-il de ceux que nous avons au Québec?
 
 > explosive growth expected in data storage infrastructures over the
 > next decade, a tripling by some estimates.
 >
 > [...]
 >
 > global temperatures are projected to rise by 2.7◦C by the end of the
 > century [...] creating near-ubiquitous conditions of water scarcity by
 > 2040 if governments and companies fail to intensify their efforts to
 > curb emissions.
 >
 > [...]
 
 ## The Cloud Is Not Silent ##
 
 > [...]
 >
 > Over vast distances, the sonic exhaust of our digital lives
 > reverberates: the minute vibrations of hard disks, the rumbling of air
 > chillers, the cranking of diesel generators, the mechanical spinning
 > of fans. Data centers emit acoustic waste, what environmentalists call
 > “noise pollution.”
 >
 > [...]
 >
 > The acute and longitudinal physiological effects of industrial noise
 > pollution are well-documented to include hearing loss, elevated stress
 > hormones like cortisol, hypertension, and insomnia.
 >
 > [...]
 >
 > Unlike other industries, data centers are largely self-regulating:
 > There is no sweeping federal agency to govern the siting and operation
 > of new and existing facilities.
 >
 > [...]
 
 ## Immortal Waste ##
 
 > Since the year 2007, when the first smartphone debuted on the
 > marketplace, over seven billion devices of the sort have since been
 > manufactured. Their lifespans average less than two years, a
 > consequence of designed obsolescence and a thirst to profit from
 > flashy new features and capabilities.
 >
 > [...]
 >
 > Under grueling conditions, miners tirelessly plumb the earth for the
 > rare metals required to make information and communications technology
 > (ICT) devices. Then, in vast factories like Foxconn located in the
 > Global South, where labor can be procured cheaply and legal
 > protections for workers are scant, smartphones are assembled and
 > shipped out to consumers, only to be discarded in a matter of months,
 > to end up in e-waste graveyards like those of Agbogbloshie,
 > Ghana. These metals, many of which are toxic and contain radioactive
 > elements, take millennia to decay.
 >
 > [···]
 >
 > Historian Nathan Ensmenger writes that a single desktop computer
 > requires 240 kilograms of fossil fuels, 22 kilograms of chemicals, and
 > 1,500 kilograms of water to manufacture.
 >
 > [...]
 >
 > Historian Nathan Ensmenger writes that a single desktop computer
 > requires 240 kilograms of fossil fuels, 22 kilograms of chemicals, and
 > 1,500 kilograms of water to manufacture.
 >
 > [...]
 >
 > The ecological dynamics we find ourselves in are not entirely a
 > consequence of design limits, but of human practices and choices —
 > among individuals, communities, corporations, and governments —
 > combined with a deficit of will and imagination to bring about a
 > sustainable Cloud. The Cloud is both cultural and technological. Like
 > any aspect of culture, the Cloud’s trajectory — and its ecological
 > impacts — are not predetermined or unchangeable. Like any aspect of
 > culture, they are mutable.