Application #1


 Energy Use By The Internet


    The internet has been used for a long time and is increasing at crazy rates that internet companies can barely handle. This obviously is creating many problems one of them being pollution, as of 2017 out of the total emissions produced by the world 3.5% of them are from internet use. By 2040 it is predicted that over 14 percent of global emissions are going to be from internet use says John Videl who wrote "‘Tsunami of data’ could consume one fifth of global electricity by 2025." (CHN) This alone shows it environmental impact. This can contribute to many things including climate change which also stem off to extinction in plants, animals, rising water, lack of food, etc. Which also all have their own environmental impact. Climate change is well known as one of the main reasons of our problems on the earth and changing the planet in an unnatural way has its obvious downsides. This can have negative effects on humans, carbon emissions are not safe to breathe in and with the planet heating up, people are losing homes and it just looks worse from here on out. Water levels are supposed to rise a lot in the upcoming years where entire cities are going to be run over, including "New York, Miami, Seattle and San Diego" (Moore) just to name a few. These obviously like I stated above are not natural changes on the planet but changes humans put on themselves. Humans are obviously doing this because once again these are unnatural changes and because of humans creating these devices that the planet has become so reliant on. Because internet usage is rapidly increasing they need more power to put it out to the increasing demand. Humans are doing this to themselves and the only way that this is fixable is to switch to a different type of energy source that isn't being tossed out into what has turned into a free to use trash can. 

Microsoft Headquarters

    You can relate the energy use by the internet to the oil industry and other industries that provide power to companies. Gathering power sources has become a problem as they do it harmfully to the environment. A lot the problems that influence global warming stem from the oil industry. Most power relies on natural resources and if companies keep selling natural resources, companies are going to use them for power to feed their internet output in this case scenario. Because this is cheaper companies are using this over buying things like windmills and solar panels as they want quick reliable production opposed to a high price with a smaller energy output. On top of that because of the high increase in usage they don't want to build these renewable energy sources as they will need to buy more for when the ones they already built aren't able to support the increasing number of users. This isn't practical for these companies as building these just don't make any sense for them. "On top of that for the country paying for that much reusable means a skyrocket in taxes for the people which most will be very against" (Vidal) In the long run both the internet business and the oil industry don't care about what they are doing to the planet they both just want to make money and at the end of the day both are going to make money either way. If something is not done soon about the energy use, the planet is going to be in big trouble.

    
Photo Source

Solar Panels

    No matter what community especially in this day and age everyone is going to be using the internet. Some places use the internet more than others but the usage will continue to stay the same if not increase. As a community in Keene for a city this size Keene likely uses a good amount of this type of energy. Keene having elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and finally a college means internet use is going to be at a high rate. With schools primarily being online especially as of recently due to the pandemic with zoom and online assignments, the rates at which we are using the internet are at an all time highs. Although unavoidable as of right now if we continue to be online there is a few things we can do to reduce our usage of the internet. This isn't a one person effort and unfortunately people are very selfish, including myself when it comes to internet use. If anyone wants to make a difference we have to use less internet in general. This includes turning things off when we are not using them, being aware of how much you are using and limiting yourself which I feel is a big problem. A lot of people don't realize how much they are using their computer and phone and people aren't going to be willing to give that up. Another thing we can do is spread awareness on these companies that aren't using renewable energy. If Keene alone went out and protested these companies people would start to realize and it would catch on until it was big enough for companies to finally change and make a difference. 
Photo Source

Keene New Hampshire




Article Used (Vidal)


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