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Data Centers Expected to Pollute More Than Airlines by 2020

Posted by timothy on from the it's-all-that-smut-in-the-wires dept.

Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, writes with a link to a New York Times story on a source of pollution that doesn't leave contrails: "The world's data centers are projected to surpass the airline industry as a greenhouse gas polluter by 2020, according to a new study by McKinsey & Co. ... [C]omputer servers are used at only 6 percent of their capacity on average, while data center facilities as a whole are used at 56 percent of peak performance." Data centers, though, might have more options for going green than airlines do, given present technology.

2 of 322 comments (clear)

  1. Oh no! by XanC · · Score: 0, Troll

    I don't want my datacenter to start using doing things in a supposedly "green" way for any of the following reasons:

    a) because a government forces them to

    b) because an activist forces them to

    c) because they think it'll be a selling point

    d) because they believe its the Right Thing (tm)

    The ONLY reason that I want my datacenter to switch to "Green" power is if and when it is CHEAPER to do so.

    Any other reason will make data more expensive, slowing down the economy. It will be rife with unintended consequences. It will be more feel-good, accomplish-nothing "Green" activism.

    How about we build some refineries for the short term and nuke plants for the long term, and solve everything?

  2. Re:Nuclear power plants by timmarhy · · Score: 1, Troll

    never mind the transmission loss. great idea genius.

    --
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