by Casey Harrell
Every day, our lives revolve more and more around the phenomenon that is “the cloud.” We check our e-mail, store our music, and share photos and status updates. It’s a key part of how we connect with our friends and family.
But have you ever stopped to wonder… where does the cloud actually exist?
It turns out the companies that give us the cloud keep all that data in huge warehouses called data centers, and those use lots of electricity, much of which comes from dirty, dangerous energy like coal and nuclear power. This problem is growing fast. We found that if the cloud were its own country, it would rank fifth in the world for how much electricity it uses, and that electricity demand will triple by 2020!
Thankfully, our growing cloud could actually be a really good thing for the planet. The cloud could be powered by clean energy, not coal. We’re already seeing companies like Google, Yahoo and Facebook lead the way by moving toward powering their clouds with clean energy, partly in thanks to you.
But other companies haven’t gotten the message yet. Today Greenpeace International released a report that shows that Apple, Amazon and Microsoft are powering their growing 21st-century clouds with dirty, 19th-century coal energy. These companies care about you, and they need to hear from you that you want a cleaner cloud.
Send a message to the CEOs of Apple, Amazon and Microsoft now and tell them to clean our cloud!
cleaner clouds please!
What about all the water these data centers use? Unless you are talking wind or solar energy, even Google estimates that it takes several gallons to produce a kWh of electricity. The water is heated for steam to spin the generators. Hydroelectric power evaporation is actually from the lake before gravity works its magic. When Google announced its energy use in 2010 of 260 MWh a day, that would be 520,000 gallons a day just to make the electricity not counting the cooling of its servers. Then they use millions of gallons of water in giant chillers to cool the servers as well. I think that the cloud is not getting so dirty as it is getting humid. We take our land, electricity, and water, and instead of producing food, we grow information that we keep past when the donor of that information is even alive anymore. Is this really worth it?