Terrestrial Radio FTW: Are Data Centers The Grimmest of the Grim Climate Issues?

One of the great cognitive dissonances of modern life is the clash between the metaphors of "the Cloud" and the reality of material infrastructure for the internet. The metaphors suggest that the internet is frictionless: no need to put a book or CD on your shelf, or even download any actual data to a place in your actual home; no need to deal with paper or printers or vinyl or cash or AM/FM antennas.

I can't remember when I first learned that far from being frictionless, data centers actually use a huge amount of energy and create a ton of carbon emissions. This article I read recently says that "the Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry." It also describes vividly how data centers create massive amounts of heat, use a ton of air conditioning and water, emit massive noise pollution, and rely on minerals that are unethically sourced and impossible to dispose of properly.

Unlike flying or eating meat, data use gets almost no attention as an ecological issue. Is that because each person's contribution is so small? Is it because we can't imagine life with less internet? Is it because the Cloud metaphors of non-materiality are so embedded in our culture? Is it because tech companies have invested in our ignorance about this topic?

I came face to face with the breadth of non-acquaintance with the issues of data centers recently, when I tried to buy a "terrestrial radio." To explain, first let me back up. When I was young, I used to listen to the radio -- like, regular AM/FM radio. It was a format I loved. I loved the sense that, unlike with records, what I would hear might surprise me. I loved that when something was on the radio, it was shared -- a lot of people would be having the same experience at the same time. I loved that radio had local personalities talking about music and also about other things happening in the specific place where the station was located -- because old school radio was, of course, definitively local.

I thought I would try to reconnect with that textural experience so I went to audio stores looking for good ways to listen to the radio. I quickly learned "radio" now means not the old AM/FM system but rather a thing where data goes from a data centre through an app and into your speakers. I learned that the concept of my youth -- where a local signal goes through the air into an antenna -- is now called "terrestrial radio."

I also learned that no one listens to terrestrial radio and that to be a woman in an audio store interested in "terrestrial radio" is to invite scorn and condescension. Sales guys assumed that I didn't understand technology, that I didn't like apps, or that I thought old fashioned radio was better. They slowly and patiently explained to me that listening to the radio through the internet was better in every way: the sound quality is better, you can listen to any station in the world, there's no fussing about antennas and signal strength. Their message was clear: 'Please stop being ridiculous."

It was too difficult to explain my inchoate sense of the charm of a signal going through the air -- bypassing the internet with all its ridiculous surveillance -- and the strange attraction of being able to choose from among a handful of local stations rather than any station on the planet. So instead of talking about that, I moved straight on to the environment. "But it's more eco-friendly," I said. "The data centers," I said. "Sustainability."

Total blank stare. No one seemed to know about that or have thought about it at all, and their gut reaction was that I was some kind of conspiracy theorist. 

I'm not blaming them -- it isn't even something you would know about if you didn't go out of your way to know about it. I just say this to emphasize what an outlier view it seems to be to care about this issue.
 

Anyway, on a personal emotional level, I find the climate impact of data centers extra grim -- even beyond the extremely high bar of grimness for any climate topic, which is really saying something. I think part of the reason is that so much of what we are getting out of data centers seems relatively pointless.

When food, heating, and transportation contribute to climate change, that is alarming, but the visceral importance of these things is obvious to me. Eating, staying warm, traveling to see people or to see the world -- these are human activities we need and want. 

But when I think about data centers I think about email and bitcoin and Google's new ridiculous AI replacement for search. I grew up in the 80s so I know about things that pre-date data centres -- like writing letters, using a card catalogue, and going to the bank. I guess those things were a bit inconvenient, but overall it was fine. As we know, along many metrics, like housing affordability, it was way better.

Radio-wise, I just had a flirtation with Sirius XM. My friend recommended BPM, for dance music, which is, in fact, great. Like old-school radio, it has stations with people talking and playing music. 

But then I remembered the data centers heating up the landscape, stealing all the water, and driving the people away. All that so I could be occasionally surprised by a fun new dance track? I dunno, but it doesn't seem worth it.