The words of Chief Seattle have always inspired me. I share his passion for protecting the environment and the beauty of our natural world for future generations. But, when I look at the above quote I can't help but wonder if this still applies to our world today. In the digital world, leaving nothing but footprints could and does have adverse impacts on our planet and posterity.
In the report put out by Greenpeace Make IT Green: Cloud Computing and it's Contribution to Climate Change I learned that the advent of cloud computing is not the panacea that many think it is if one takes into consideration the impact that cloud computing has on increased CO2 levels. While the cloud grows, so does the demand for electricity to power the data centres. In Oregon, Facebook announced in January plans for a data centre in Prineville, a timber community in Central Oregon. The criticism from Greenpeace is that Facebook's data centre is using electricity from Pacificorp, which primarily gets it's power from coal rather than renewable sources. When I lived in Oregon I was in the Pacificorp territory and signed up for their 'Blue Sky' option which costs more but uses renewable energy sources such as wind power. Facebook has yet to sign up for the Blue Sky option and has made the statement that the energy saved from putting the data centre in a cold climate outweighs the source of the power. Reading through this report it became clear to me that although there are clear benefits to business and individuals in regard to efficiency and ease in internet services offered by 'the cloud', there are still many challenges faced by the IT industry. Will huge companies like google, yahoo, and facebook have a brown cloud that puts the already fragile environment in more danger or will choose to respond and act responsibly and ethically by moving towards a more sustainable green cloud? The decisions that these mega companies will make will have far reaching implications for future generations. How will the IT industry take steps to make sure that they take only memories and DON'T leave dirty footprints?
Interestingly, there is a protest group that is calling for facebook to use 100% renewable energy in data centres. Ironically, this is the group:
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