The environmental impact of digital technology: the journey of a “Like”

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The environmental impact of digital technology: the journey of a “Like”

Guillaume Pitron

Guillaume Pitron is a French journalist, specialist in the geopolitics of raw materials, author and director of documentaries.

How can we imagine that a simple Like sent from our smartphones mobilizes what will soon constitute the largest infrastructure built by humankind? That this notification crosses the seven layers of the Internet, travels around the world, using submarine cables, telephone antennas and data centers located in the Arctic Circle?

The "dematerialized" world of digital technologies, essential for communicating, working and consuming, is proving to be much more tangible than we would like to believe. Today, it absorbs 10% of the world's electricity and represents nearly 4% of the planet's CO2 emissions. Yet we have difficulty understanding these impacts, as we are so misty about the mirage of the cloud, pure and ethereal. Yet we must face the facts: if there is a "cloud", it is black with pollution.

What is the geography of our clicks and our data? What environmental and geopolitical stakes do they carry without our knowledge?

Guillaume Pitron, who conducted a two-year investigation on four continents, reveals in this conference the anatomy of a technology that is virtual in its name only, as well as the solutions, gleaned from around the world, to make the digital world more sustainable.

About Guillaume Pitron : Guillaume Pitron is a French journalist, specialist in the geopolitics of raw materials, author and director of documentaries.