Bouncing Bunnie$ on a Green Internet?

AN ENERGY RANT

Looking for Bouncing Bunnies? There will be no bouncing bunnies on this web site.

I do not accept the myth that the “paperless internet” is sustainable, green, or minimally ecologically acceptable. If it were, then why are companies that use millions of computer servers a) negotiating secretly to build data centers so people don’t find out until it is too late, and b) getting states to pass laws withholding information about how much electricity they use? Why do some people claim that one “avatar” uses as much electricity in a year as an average Brazilian? That each search click activates many thousands of energy-hungry computers?

I first explored this issue in 2008 in The Energy Nightmare of Web Server Farms. I later updated the idea in “Eat, Sleep, Click: The Bicycle-Powered Internet.” (2011).

The Democracy Theme Park site is designed to minimize server use. As a quick guide, text is lightest on data center energy consumption. Pictures and other still graphics are worse; music is worse still; and videos and bouncing-bunny setups are the most energy intensive of all.

Users are urged to minimize server time, and use the Internet as we should use internal combustion engines: only when no alternative exists. Store materials on your own computer, or on passive storage devices, and not in archived emails, on internet backup services, and the like. Despite all the hoo-hah about solar and wind energy, they provide only a trivial amount of Internet electricity. Every click is a coal mine, nuclear power plant, or oil spill in someone’s back yard.