Excess memes and ‘reply all’ emails are bad for climate, researcher warns

The Guardian ^ | Fri 9 Aug 2024 14.20 EDT | Helena Horton

[BenLurkin]

“I can has cheezburger?” became one of the first internet memes...

But 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” ... are out there somewhere, sitting in a datacentre, using up energy. By 2030, the National Grid anticipates that datacentres will account for just under 6% of the UK’s total electricity consumption, so tackling junk data is an important part of tackling the climate crisis.

Ian Hodgkinson, a professor of strategy at Loughborough University has been studying the climate impact of dark data and how it can be reduced.

“I really started a couple of years ago, it was about trying to understand the negative environmental impact that digital data might have,” he said. “And at the top of it might be quite an easy question to answer, but it turns out actually, it’s a whole lot more complex. But absolutely, data does have a negative environmental impact.”

He discovered that 68% of data used by companies is never used again, and estimates that personal data tells the same story.

[ConservativeMind]

Is someone paying for it?

Then shut up.

[crusty old prospector]

What about bitcoin mining?

[NautiNurse]

Whatever it takes to stop people from using Reply To All, when the sender is too stupid or careless to use BCC in email blasts. If claiming climate change will stop this intrusive and dangerous practice, I’m all in.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The Professor is right. We should abandon digital data storage and go back to paper in filing cabinets. Nobody ever filed papers that were never looked at again. And there was no energy required to make that paper and ink and file the stuff away, never to be seen again.

How many of us started off in companies with filing like this?

How can data just sitting in memory cost anything to maintain? Maybe the data gets defragmented on the disks every once in a while, but what does that cost?

[Chode]

[Rinnwald]

... time of the Long Darkness.

Nice.

I suppose Dark Ages II would be unoriginal?

DA Part Deux: The Dufing.

The Grand Idiocy

We Did It To Ourselves

Good & Hard

Schwab"s Wash

Told You So Blues

[nwrep]

How did the British go from being the world’s most powerful imperial rulers to being willing cuckolds of African Muslims so quickly?

[fidelis]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that Conservative memes are more clever and spot-on than liberal/leftist ones? Getting rid of them is the only defense they have because they themselves are not clever enough to come up with good ones.

If a meme is good enough to share, I save it in my own data storage for later use. If the original goes away, I don't care.

[Deaf Smith]

I noted the absence of mentioning bloggers as harmful for the “environment”.

[FamiliarFace]

I Can Has Cheeseburger. One of my favorites.

Now show me a bunny with a pancake on its head.

Then we are complete.

Complete FR awesomeness.

[xp38]

Another one I had to check if it was the Bee or not.

[rlmorel]

Oh. And, Reply to All.

[ealgeone]

Unless of course, those memes and emails are those of our betters.

[rlmorel]

I love Free Republic!

[DoodleBob]

But absolutely, data does have a negative environmental impact.

[ConjunctionJunction]

It’s the same guy. Nick Freitas(R) is a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. I wish he was a member of Congress.

He is very funny!

[rlmorel]

[rlmorel]

Hahahahaha...I so enjoy threads like this!

[rktman]

Commie-la will drain the overloaded cloud on day one to keep it from bursting out of control. She’s not joking!

[catnipman]

OTOH, no one ever sez jack squat about bitcoin mining and shitcoin mining consuming electricity equivalent to the anount Argentina uses ... but oh, emails and memes are BAAAAAD ...