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The New York Times has an interesting story:
The computer engine rooms that power the digital economy have become surprisingly energy efficient.
A new study of data centers globally found that while their computing output jumped sixfold from 2010 to 2018, their energy consumption rose only 6 percent. The scientists' findings suggest concerns that the rise of mammoth data centers would generate a surge in electricity demand and pollution have been greatly overstated.
The major force behind the improving efficiency is the shift to cloud computing. In the cloud model, businesses and individuals consume computing over the internet as services, from raw calculation and data storage to search and social networks.
There may yet be hope for data centers.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Sunday March 01 2020, @07:41PM (1 child)
Companies running massive data centers don't want to give away money. So they try to keep their data centers running efficiently. This is the kind of thing that capitalism does well.
Actually, nearly all of the recent "failures" of capitalism can be traced to government intervention. Prime example: health care in the US. The problems are almost entirely due to unnecessary gatekeeping enforced by the government. Or take space exploration: Get NASA and ULA out of the way, cut regulations to the bone, and let SpaceX, Blue Origin and other private companies do their thing.
Of course, removing unnecessary government from the equation also reduces money flowing from lobbyists to politicians, so change is...unlikely.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 01 2020, @07:52PM
"Prime example: health care in the US. The problems are almost entirely due to unnecessary gatekeeping enforced by the government."
uh.. no, it was commercialization of healthcare by Bonzo Ray-Gun in the 80's