>mfw memes are killing the planet [August 2024]
When it comes to the collapse of complex societies, including contemporary global industrial civilization and our planetary biosphere, I believe that humour has a fundamental role to play when helping to educate, communicate with, or soothe those overwhelmed by the subject.
Of course, I had not really thought about “the accumulative environmental price tag of the endless digital trash we generate daily, then rarely if ever touch again” (to q until very recently when I stumbled across this Guardian article from a few weeks ago titled “Excess memes and ‘reply all’ emails are bad for climate, researcher warns”.
While I’d recommend giving this wonderful interview between the author (Helena Horton) and Professor Ian R. Hodgkinson a read, I thought that for the sake of deeper context and analysis, I’d pull out some key points and place them alongside some quotes from Hodgkinson’s other publicly available works. The intent here is to tell a quick story on the fascinating relationship between energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and data transmission & storage, so let’s begin:
“... research has now found that the vast majority of data stored in the cloud is “dark data”, meaning it is used once then never visited again. That means that all the memes and jokes and films that we love to share with friends and family – from “All your base are belong to us”, through Ryan Gosling saying “Hey Girl”, to Tim Walz with a piglet – are out there somewhere, sitting in a datacentre, using up energy.” (Source: Excess memes and ‘reply all’ emails are bad for climate, researcher warns, Helena Horton)
“Data centres alone account for 3% of the global electricity supply and consume more power than the entire United Kingdom (UK), contributing 2% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions (Bawden, 2016). The ‘store it all’ approach adopted by many organisations as evidenced in the migration to the cloud, for instance, is a significant threat to the pursuit of net-zero, given that the energy sector already accounts for 35% of total global emissions (UN, 2022).” (Source: Is there a role for knowledge management in saving the planet from too much data? [Editoral], Thomas W. Jackson & Ian R. Hodgkinson)
“With recent reports suggesting that the total size of the ‘data-scape’ is increasing dramatically, the need to understand the relationship between data and energy is extremely pressing. This is in part evidenced by the increasing media attention on the energy-intensity of data centres, which play a central role in the digital world (Mikkonen & Wilson, 2023).” (Source: Debate: The data threat to 2050 net zero—public administrations’ responsibility for the ‘data-scape’, Thomas W. Jackson & Ian R. Hodgkinson)
“Electricity consumption from data centres, artificial intelligence (AI) and the cryptocurrency sector could double by 2026. Data centres are significant drivers of growth in electricity demand in many regions. After globally consuming an estimated 460 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2022, data centres’ total electricity consumption could reach more than 1 000 TWh in 2026. This demand is roughly equivalent to the electricity consumption of Japan.” (Source: IEA – Electricity 2024: Analysis and Forecast to 2026)
“The energy cost of 1GB of data is a hotly-contested debate —it is a complex and multifaceted issue, riddled with various interpretations and ambiguities in both academic and grey literature. This complexity arises from the diverse considerations involved in calculating kilowatt-hours (kWh) per unit of data, including data storage, transmission, and computing processes. Moreover, a lack of transparency among key players in the data industry further muddles the clarity of this matter (Mytton & Ashtine, 2022).” (Source: Debate: The data threat to 2050 net zero—public administrations’ responsibility for the ‘data-scape’ -- Thomas W. Jackson & Ian R. Hodgkinson)
“At this juncture, you might wonder if it is even feasible to ascertain the average energy consumption associated with 1GB, considering the diverse paths it may traverse. This data could range from serving as the backbone for training a sophisticated Artificial Intelligence model, to being a YouTube video viewed by a handful or millions of people across the globe, or even residing in the depths of cold storage and largely forgotten.” (Source: Debate: The data threat to 2050 net zero—public administrations’ responsibility for the ‘data-scape’, Thomas W. Jackson & Ian R. Hodgkinson)
“[Hodgkinson] discovered that 68% of data used by companies is never used again, and estimates that personal data tells the same story. “If we think about individuals and society more broadly, what we found is that many still assume that data is carbon neutral, but every piece of data whether it be an image, whether it be an Instagram post, whatever it is, there’s a carbon footprint attached to it. So when we’re storing things in the cloud, we think about the white fluffy cloud, but the reality is, these data centres are incredibly hot, incredibly noisy, they consume a large amount of energy.” (Source: Excess memes and ‘reply all’ emails are bad for climate, researcher warns, Helena Horton)
“[...] global emissions from cloud computing have been observed to range from 2.5% to 3.7% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, thereby exceeding emissions from commercial flights (about 2.4%) and other existential activities that fuel our global economy (Lavi, 2022).” (Source: Is there a role for knowledge management in saving the planet from too much data? [Editoral], Thomas W. Jackson & Ian R. Hodgkinson).
“Cloud operators and tech companies have a financial incentive to stop people from deleting junk data, as the more data that is stored, the more people pay to use their systems. [Professor Ian R. Hodgkinson]: “We’re paying for that storage. Now effectively, you’re paying for something which you’re not ever going to use again, because you’re not even aware it exists. And when we think about the significant costs it has for financial terms, but also the environment, to the bigger picture … we’re falling short of the required trajectory to meet that zero by 2050. There are maybe other big contributors to [greenhouse gas] emissions, which maybe haven’t been picked up. And we would certainly argue that data is one of those and it will grow and get bigger, particularly think about that huge explosion but also, we know through forecasts that in the next year to two, if we take all the renewable energy in the world, that wouldn’t be enough to accommodate the amount of energy data requires. So that’s quite a scary thought.” (Source: Excess memes and ‘reply all’ emails are bad for climate, researcher warns, Helena Horton)
And so, there you have it: the horrible truth behind some of the environmental impacts for each meme we create, share, store, and ultimately forget somewhere on some forlorn hard drive or data server, burning through our cheap inheritance of fossil fuel energy, before finding a resting place in some misbegotten pile of ever-growing toxic e-waste.
No punchline, just the consequences of our increasingly digital future.
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If you enjoyed today’s piece, and if you also share my insatiable curiosity for the various interdisciplinary aspects of “collapse”, please consider taking a look at some of my other written and graphic works at my Substack Page – Myth of Progress. That said, as a proud member of this community, I will always endeavour to publish my work to r/collapse first.
My work is free, and will always be free; when it comes to educating others on the challenges of the human predicament, no amount of compensation will suffice … and if you’ve made it this far, then you have my sincere thanks.