The Internet and its impact on the environment: the good, the bad and the uglyThe infrastructure of the Internet and the way we use it has a range of environmental costs and benefits. In this session, we'll be discussing the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to the Internet and the environment, with a particular focus on climate change.
In the weeks leading up to NetHui, links and more background information will be added to
this shared doc. In the meantime, here are some starting points to think about:
A few examples of environmental costs of the Internet:
- It takes energy to keep the Internet's infrastructure up and running
- Businesses like Uber have proven to increase the number of cars in city centres and impact public transport systems
- Bitcoin and other blockchain-enabled cryptocurrencies take huge amounts of energy to run
- A lot of e-waste comes from our consumption of the devices we use to access the Internet
A few examples of environmental benefits of the Internet:
- People can easily attend meetings virtually and avoid emissions-heavy travel
- Global-scale activism like the school strikes for climate can be quickly organised
- It's easy to find out how to fix things that might otherwise go to landfill
- Reduced use of paper and other resources
