If there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it’s keep it simple, but we have this primal need to constantly tamper with things. It always has to be bigger, better and shinier, even if it functioned nicely to begin with.
When computers entered our homes, I distinctly remember the sales pitch. They were going to make our lives easier, so they said. Go paperless and spare the trees they said, and look what followed.
Technology has been thrust upon us, and what a colossal burden it is on the planet. The introduction of smartphones is a chronic addiction for many, with plenty of research to back it up.
Society is so attached that people check them on average 144 times a day like a newborn baby. Statistics from Ericsson show there are currently 7.648 billion mobile connections associated with smartphones.
According to Bryce Energy Services, on average the energy used annually charging a smartphone is comparable to the monthly consumption of a standard refrigerator. Then the constant need to update them costs one to two percent of the world’s energy and this is just scratching the surface!
If you have your smartphone handy it gives you instant access to just about anything, but there are hidden costs involved.
According to Vamp there are more than 100 social media platforms. On a monthly basis the most popular are, Facebook with 3.1 billion participants, YouTube 2.5 billion, Instagram 2 billion and TikTok 1.5 billion.
The energy used yearly just to operate Facebook is equivalent to a small nation like Jordan.
Then there’s the added impact of regular followers who contribute on average 414kg to their annual carbon footprint. It’s a repetitive story.
The exact figure for YouTube and Netflix is dependent on your device, but every hour of streaming releases approximately 42g of carbon dioxide, taking into account data centres, transmission networks and playback devices.
There are no official figures for Instagram but its continual dependence on video streaming and the energy needed to function, makes it the most polluting. Put into perspective, there are more than 500 million people who spend around 28 minutes on Instagram daily, which equals 21,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases. Or put another way, one hour daily adds 33kg to their yearly carbon footprint.
Independent research into carbon and energy usage for TikTok shows it emits about 50 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gases per annum, and a single minute of scrolling on TikTok generates nearly three grams of emissions.
To access all of this you need apps and currently there are 8.9 million available across all major platforms, yet most are unnecessary, and worse they consume 1.5% to 3% of the world’s energy daily.
What makes all this possible? It might seem like it appears out of thin air but there’s a dark side: data processing centres, and they’re spreading rapidly, driven by unrealistic ambitions, the AI revolution.
Australia is currently running in second place after the US, asserting and positioning itself to be the hub of the Asia Pacific region, with our wind farms and solar arrays making us a favourable location. As for our water supply, it grows scarcer by the day.
Research from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy shows an average data processing facility covers hundreds of acres, every day gulping down as much water as a city of 50,000 people. That’s nearly 19 million litres of water.
Statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA) show the storage of documents or streaming videos in a conventional data centre’s think cloud, everyday draws as much electricity as 10,000 to 25,000 households.
According to the Australian Climate Council, there are currently 160 centres now operating, clustered around Sydney and Melbourne, with another 90 proposed.
Now imagine the power and water a data processing facility would need when it takes up 52 hectares of land, accommodating six four storey buildings 40 metres in height, along with 936 cooling units, plus 852 diesel powered generators as back up.
That’s the size of the proposed centre for the outer western suburbs of Sydney, a controversial ‘Hyperscale’ data centre, and if approved it will be one of the largest in the world. And it will be the greediest sole user of Australia’s electricity.
The proliferation of apps and cloud-based services are already taxing data centres, consuming roughly 5% of Australia’s electricity and stealing 3.5 billion litres of water in Sydney every year.
Alex Hooper is head of climate and energy economics at Oxford Economics Australia, and according to his calculations 2.8% of the east coast’s electricity consumption is taken by these climate-controlled centres and projected to reach more than 10% by the mid-2030s.
There are 11,959 data processing centres operating worldwide, and another 3,200 needed to drive the AI boom. An AI data processing centre can use up to ten times more electricity, and a basic AI internet query, usesn10 to 50 times more electricity than a standard web search.
Even a short 100-word response from AI, uses 500ml of water just for cooling systems. A report from the United Nations Regional Information Centre reveals the demand for water by AIs will reach 4.2 to 6.6 billion cubic metres by 2027 globally.
This can only lead us to an environmental catastrophe, especially when according to the IEA, 82% of the world’s energy is still powered by fossil fuels, including Australia with 60.5%.
A report from the UN spells it out loud and clear. By 2030 AI’s needs will equal 1.3 billion people and the energy consumed will be triple that of 650 million. Their land footprint will be more than 14,500km2, and emissions will be 400 million tonnes annually!
We’re primitives living in a sugar-coated world with no instinctual compass to guide us. We’ve been shooting in the dark with a cannon ball and what a lasting impression we’ve made.
We have the planet spinning round like a wheel of fortune. “Where’s my 15 minutes of fame?” they chant. “How many likes did I get today?” That’s standing up and being counted. We’re already in way over our heads, and no doubt we’ll be dying of thirst and hunger.
So have your smartphone ready to stream live across the globe, while Mother Earth sets the scene for the final act, with the spotlight shining down upon us, the sponsors and orchestrators of her last waltz.