Environmental Impact
As hard as it may be to believe, the internet itself has a pretty noticeable impact towards our environment. Information Technology (IT) services account for 2% of world wide carbon emissions, which is about the same as the aviation sector. to put it in perspective, all the streaming from videos and social media we use on a day to day basis has the same amount of emissions as "a fleet of 747s rumbling off for takeoff" (Walsh 2014). With this coming into perspective, several companies have taken initiative to greening how they use their energy. Some examples of this is Apple powering its iCloud services through their own private solar farms and using wind, geothermal, and solar power to power up their data centers. Facebook also has purchased the largest amount of wind turbines in the world to power up its facilities in response to Greenpeace's "Unfriend Coal" campaign. (Walsh 2014).
Google has also ventured into both investing and testing out green energy services. They have invested over $1 billion into green projects and claim to have its facilities powered through 34% of green energy (Google).
With the increasing push towards greening the internet, we can hope green energy can become more of an appeal to large companies and promote its use towards people in the United States. With company giants like Apple, Facebook, and Google paving the way, the increase use of renewable energy or even possibly the indefinite use of it does not seem impossible now.
Google has also ventured into both investing and testing out green energy services. They have invested over $1 billion into green projects and claim to have its facilities powered through 34% of green energy (Google).
With the increasing push towards greening the internet, we can hope green energy can become more of an appeal to large companies and promote its use towards people in the United States. With company giants like Apple, Facebook, and Google paving the way, the increase use of renewable energy or even possibly the indefinite use of it does not seem impossible now.