Sirsnapalot Loc: Hammond, Louisiana

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

While it's true that energy is used to store and transfer data from "the cloud" but it's likely BETTER environmentally. Image if all of the people who now watch movies via Netflix or listened to music via Spotify used CDs,DVDs and Blu-ray discs instead? Just a thought.

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

Pollution creates income. Do you care????

JimBart Loc: Western Michigan

My concern in using "cloud" technology is what happens if the signals go down? Big brother has all our data and can use it for whatever purposes he wants. Confidentiality is not important in cloud storage.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

I only upload encrypted files to my OneDrive, Where they "live" to be retrieved and deencrypted "on the road" by another device (to phone,tablet or netbook). SSE is great for this as it runs on Windows, Linux, MacOS and Android. (IDK if it runs on iOS as a MacBook is my only Apple device.) My "important" files are on multiple external HDDs in three different physical locations. I do use "cloud based" delivery of media though, Hulu, Netflix, ETC.

Mr Bill 2011 Loc: southern Indiana

While much of the data being stored is not necessary, how much storage would be needed if we still used paper for most of it. We would have to cut down forests in mass just to make the paper. And I like the idea of information at my fingertips instead of having to go to the library and use the card catalog, only to find out the book I need is not available.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

True about paper! I can't imagine how many "trees worth of paper" I have stored on digital media! And online resources like the Internet Archive allows me to read many old books and magazines that otherwise would be entirely unavailable to me. Also there's the lower environmental impact of having 100s of videos and movies that are stored on devices that contain 1000s of times less material (plastics and metals) than video tapes. AND I can copy and back up all of it without generation loss!

Retired fat guy with a camera Loc: Colorado

I was a Union Pipefitter [welder] I made a lot of money, running chill water line to server rooms. It was good clean work.
I have worked on nuclear, coal burning, gas fired, and hydro electric, power plants. The all have a impact on the environment. Some less than others, but the point remains, you cannot have power without a cost.
With Solar, batteries wear out. You have to store the energy. Electric cars? When their batteries go, it costs more than a engine replacement, somewhere in the neighborhood of, 6-8,000 dollars. Not to mention, the batteries themselves are highly toxic. Where do you dispose of them? And of course they do not charge themselves.
We, as a species, are messy, we pollute. I guess if you used a stick to plow and plant food. Relied on rain to water the crops. You would have to eat what you grew raw, because fire produces pollution. Lived where clothing was a option. And never used anything made from metal, plastic or any other man made substance.
It takes electricity to mint and print money, your visa card is plastic, can't use that. you could barter, for goods I guess. Then you could, bitch about the use of un-necessary electric use.
But then again, how would you know if the whining helped. Computers, TV's and smart phones, would be on the no go list. You could make your own ink, paper and pen [a quill] and spread the word. You could always, sit next to your poster and get feedback.
Me, I ain't gonna to complain.

barbie.lewis Loc: Livingston, Texas

And then there is the NSA's 1-Million Square Foot data center that consumes 6̲5̲ ̲m̲e̲g̲a̲w̲a̲t̲t̲s̲ ̲o̲f̲ ̲e̲l̲e̲c̲t̲r̲i̲c̲i̲t̲y̲ c̲o̲n̲t̲i̲n̲u̲o̲u̲s̲l̲y ̲a̲n̲d̲ ̲u̲p̲ ̲t̲o̲ ̲1̲.̲7̲ ̲m̲i̲l̲l̲i̲o̲n̲ ̲g̲a̲l̲l̲o̲n̲s̲ ̲o̲f̲ ̲w̲a̲t̲e̲r̲ ̲a̲ ̲d̲a̲y to feed multiple Cray XC30 Supercomputers running up to 1 million Intel Xenon core processors at the same time as fast as 100 petaflops. SLT.com described one petaflop as about one thousand trillion calculations per second. This would put the system as three times faster than the world’s fastest supercomputer.
Storage estimates for the government spying center are in the thousands of zettabytes or yottabytes.
All to spy on you and record every phone call, every email, etc., etc.

pelha Loc: middlle of nowhere NY

yeah. So we as individuals run real work & play on either local or cloud disks, & the energy use maybe is about the same. But, & it's a huge but, there are a lot of servers out there spinning madly for junk 'work', or random heavy load surges & otherwise doing nothing useful. And they are sucking up a gigantic amount of energy. I wish system analysis were an American thing to do. U. Lowell (Massachusetts) tried a graduate program in it, but that didn't last very long.

Retired fat guy with a camera Loc: Colorado

Barb, go offline. Turn off your phone. Quit your job, buy a tepee, and head for the hills. Close your bank account. Live free.
You do know that the water that is used to cool the servers, is in a closed system [pipes] and is used over and over.

barbie.lewis Loc: Livingston, Texas

I try to be fairly close to that. Retired, no job, live in an RV with solar power, and keep constantly on the move.

Retired fat guy with a camera Loc: Colorado

Good for you

Marionsho Loc: Kansas

From the article,
"Terry Darton, a former manager at Virginia’s environmental agency, said permits had been issued to enough generators for data centers in his 14-county corner of Virginia to nearly match the output of a nuclear power plant."
All I can say is WOW.

pelha Loc: middlle of nowhere NY

and I say YUCK!