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CrowdScience: How bad is our data for the planet?

Discussion & Talk

How bad is our data for the planet?

01/03/2024 GMT

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, How bad is our data for the planet?

What's the environmental impact of all the data we use?

What's the environmental impact of all the data we use, and how can we make data centres more sustainable?

Storing your data in ‘the cloud’ might sound like an ethereal, intangible place, but it’s actually a physical location - a data centre. CrowdScience listener Art is worried about how much energy and water data centres are consuming. He’s from Ireland, where data centres are gobbling up almost 20% of the national electricity supply and that’s growing, fast.

So how much energy and water are data centres using globally? And how can they become more sustainable? To answer Art’s question CrowdScience heads to chilly western Norway to visit a data centre hidden deep within a mountain, that’s said to be one of the most efficient in the world. And we hear how a data centre in South Africa is saving water and dealing with crippling power cuts by generating its own renewable energy.

Do we just need to stream less TV and reduce our email inbox? With the help of carbon footprint expert Mike Berners-Lee, we crunch the numbers to find out.

Featuring:
Svein Atle Hagaseth, CEO of Green Mountain data centres in Norway
Mike Berners-Lee, Professor at Lancaster University’s Environment Centre and consultant at Small World Consulting
Thulani Ncube, Group Energy Lead at Africa Data Centres

Presenter: Anand Jagatia
Producer: Sophie Eastaugh
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Studio Manager: Donald MacDonald
Production: Jonathan Harris & Connor Morgans
Additional Recording by: Kobus van Niekerk

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