66 lines
7.8 KiB
Markdown
66 lines
7.8 KiB
Markdown
title: Redesign into Zero Carbon
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---
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pub_date: 2020-01-26
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---
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author: ungleich
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---
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twitter_handle: ungleich
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---
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_hidden: no
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---
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_discoverable: no
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---
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abstract:
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We need to redesign ourself into zero carbon
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---
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body:
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## Reality check: it's been warm and it's not right
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In our small mountain village in the Swiss Alps, we’ve been having an exceptionally warm winter. Max. 11°C in January, is still cold enough for our servers but some of the local businesses are suffering from not having enough visitors to the region, since people usually come here to enjoy skiing and other winter sports that require snow and colder weather.
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While one strangely warm and snowless winter is not direct evidence of climate change, we can’t help but wonder what will happen if this continues every year: with such warm weather, what will happen to our mountain ecosystem and ultimately to us humans? What will happen when there is no snow left on top of the Alps?
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We are in fact witnessing this change right now - the Pizol glacier in the Glarus Alps has been melting with an unprecedented speed and it is [due to disappear completely by 2030.](https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/reuters/climate-activists-hold-event-to-mark-vanishing-swiss-glacier/45247240) And it is just one of the many glaciers we are hopelessly watching while it melts away.
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No snow on the Alps and having most parts of southern Europe turning into deserts is not a part of dystopian sci-fi scenario, but our reality that environmental scientists are forecasting with gravitas. UK Met Office researchers warn that [by 2060, the world could warm up by 4 °C](https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19778-royal-society-paints-picture-of-a-world-4-c-warmer/) which will likely cause a serious food and water shortage for the world: animals and plants will die and so will people.
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## Every fraction of degree matters, and that requires our action.
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If the environmental scientists are saying the truth, and we think they do, we are living a critical time: meaning we can still change things but we don't have any time to waste before it is really too late. Last Tuesday at the World Economic Forum Davos, the young environmenal activist [Greta Thunberg told the world](https://youtu.be/rJ8Q_1r9L8U) that we have less than 8 years to stop the temperature raising from more than 1.5°C and "every fraction of degree matters." Every effort we do to reduce carbon emission matters and those of us who can, we need to do this in scale and with speed. Especially the richer countries need to get down to zero emission much faster than now - and in fact we could, when we really mean to.
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## The physical reality of our digital world
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Most of us do some things for the environment, no doubt about that. Today what we want to talk about is reducing carbon emission from our digital world. To be specific, going zero carbon for our digital activities.
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We don't assume you to be stupid, but this is often very well hidden to all of us: that everything we do online actually has carbon footprint. We just don't see it so we tend to go on without really thinking about it, but we are still responsible for everything we do - searching, clicking, downloading, uploading, transferring, streaming, really every byte counts. Because although not so apparent on the digital surface, every data exists somewhere as physical infrastructure that runs with power generated by some source, 24/7. Let's see some very easy examples, [10 minutes of YouTube equals 1g of CO2e,](https://www.creditangel.co.uk/blog/consumption-and-carbon-footprint-of-the-internet) [30 minutes of Netflix equals 1.6 kg(!) of CO2,](https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/half-an-hour-of-netflix-and-chill-emits-the-same-amount-of-co2-as-6-km-drive-2364791.html) and the list goes on and on. You got the idea.
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## How to reduce your digital CO2 emission
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A very good practice you can do easily is slimming down your digital acitivity. It's also *healthier* for most of us to get away from the screen once in a while. Pick up a book from your local library instead of that bad movie you downloaded from torrent. (And of course walk or bike to that library if you can.) Problem solved.
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No, problem not solved. Most of us do this digital thing for a living. We need to use data and some of us are actually saving the world by doing what we do. Many of us are in fact on the good side in fighting the evil (and/or) stupid side. Then what?
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Then what you need to do is going renewable for your digital data. Go with renewable energy as much as you can, as fast you can.
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## How do I know where my cloud is at?
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True, most people don't really know or care where their data is at. We kind of know what's bad with fast fashion or disposable plastics but we don't really think a lot about what kind of energy our cloud uses. In the meantime the [IT service industry grew as big as aviation industry in terms of carbon emission](https://time.com/46777/your-data-is-dirty-the-carbon-price-of-cloud-computing/) and now it takes about 2% of total global carbon emissions. So it is really about time we start to feel towards and act responsible with our cloud choices. You can start by finding out where your data physically is, and what kind of energy it uses. Most of the times it's not that hard to find out, and if it's hidden, you need to request the information to be disclosed to your provider. Where are they keeping their servers, and what is the energy source they are using? Are they running servers with coal or other fossil fuels? Or nuclear power? Or renewable energy such as water, solar or windpower?
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## Zero Carbon VS. Carbon Offset
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This should be an obvious point, but it's not always so obvious for most of us. Zero carbon emission from the energy source (meaning produced by 100% renewable source such as water or solarpower) is a better choice than carbon offsetting. Carbon offsetting, roughly translates into using whatever energy source available (say coal or nuclear) and paying money for funding projects for reducing the CO2 already added to the air. Carbon offsetting is a solution with its own goals and values, but it is not an answer for our critical environmental situation especially if we have zero carbon as an option. Imagine, when a glass is full, not adding any drop to it would be the best approach if we do not want to overflow the glass.
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## How to go Zero Carbon?
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To reduce carbon emission from the cloud there are two ways to do it. One is find the ones who are doing zero carbon already, and move your data there and support them so the renewable energy can be the norm. This will also encourage the new players coming into the cloud market to start clean as zero carbon. Two is pushing your cloud provider to change how they are running their servers and go fully renewable. This will help forcing the bigger players in the industry to change.
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But for those who are capable, we want to say that go for the first option. It is for the same reason as the zero carbon vs. carbon offset. When there are those who already doing the right things, go with them now, instead of continuing with those who promise to reach their goal in coming decades.
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## Our Story of Building Zero Carbon Cloud Infrastructure
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In some regions of the world, going zero carbon is much easier than other parts. Take our case in Switzerland for example, we have electricity generated by hydropower from the Alps. We have in-house hydropower generators few meters away from our servers, built from the time when Swiss textile industry made most jeans of the world. The textile industry all left to other countries with cheaper labour cost, leaving vast buildings behind perfect for sitting servers inside. This is how we started our datacenter, with things already built from the past, reusing hardware and reusing infrastructure, and running things only with renewable energy.
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- cloud storage
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- chat (mattermost and matrix)
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