14 DAY TRIAL // This April 7, Kumi Naidoo, the current Executive Director of Greenpeace International, published a blogpost saying that, as surprising as this may sound, the Internet could help the world reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In doing so, the online world would help limit climate change and global warming.
Although the Internet has been known to facilitate social revolutions and promote government transparency, what Kumi Naidoo is referring to is not the fact that the online world can help put pressure on major polluters and convince them to green up their ways.
What he means is that the Internet itself is presently not as environmentally friendly as it could be, and that there is plenty of room for improvement. Should the online world move to become more eco-friendly, significant progress could be made in terms of putting a leash on said phenomenon.
Writing on the organization's website, the Executive Director of Greenpeace International explains that, presently, cloud computing goes through lots of energy on a daily basis. More precisely, it is estimated that, if it were a country, cloud computing would rank sixth in the world in terms of electricity consumption.
“Every time we post a Facebook status to our friends, watch the latest episode of our favorite show on Netflix, or tweet to our followers, that information is housed in giant data centers which require a lot of electricity,” Kumi Naidoo writes in his blogpost.
“These data centers are a key part of the cloud, and a single one can require as much energy as a medium-sized city,” the Greenpeace International Executive Director further explains.
Were this energy to come from clean sources, neither members and supporters of Greenpeace, nor ordinary folks would have anything to worry about. The problem is that, presently, Internet giants such as Twitter, Amazon, Pinterest and Tumblr chiefly use dirty fuels and nuclear power to keep up and running.
Granted, major companies such as Google, Apple and Google have committed to 100% renewable energy. Still, Greenpeace argues that more needs to be done to curb the ecological footprint of the online world and ensure that the Internet does not end up messing up the planet beyond repair.
“If Amazon and others want to stay innovative and relevant, it's high time they made the switch to the abundant, sustainable, renewable energy of today. Simply put, we need a greener online to preserve a greener offline.”
“The Internet has helped move the world to more freedom, transparency and democracy. It's only natural that it moves the world to a clean energy revolution that will last for generations to come,” Kumi Naidoo says.
Looking to convince Internet giants that have not yet promised to embrace renewables to put the use of fossil fuels behind them, Greenpeace has started an online petition demanding that companies worldwide move to create a greener online world. Head over to Greenpeace if you want to sign this petition.