The Dark Cloud

A gripping new investigation into the underbelly of digital technology, which reveals not only how costly the virtual world is, but how damaging it is to the environment. If digital technology were a country, it would be the third-highest consumer of electricity behind China and the United States. Every year, streaming technology generates as much greenhouse gas as Spain - close to 1 per cent of global emissions. One Google search uses as much electricity as a lightbulb left on for up to two minutes. It turns out that the 'dematerialised' digital world, essential for communicating, working, and consuming, is much more tangible than we would like to believe. Today, it absorbs 10 per cent of the world's electricity and represents nearly 4 per cent of the planet's carbon dioxide emissions. We are struggling to understand these impacts, as they are obscured to us in the mirage of 'the cloud'.The result of an investigation carried out over two years on four continents, The Dark Cloud reveals the anatomy of a technology that is virtual only in name. Under the guise of limiting the impact of humans on the planet, it is already asserting itself as one of the major environmental challenges of the twenty-first century.

Product details

• Authors: Guillaume Pitron
• Assisted by: Bianca Jacobsohn (Translation)
• Publisher: Scribe Publications
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 14.09.2023
• EAN: 9781914484445
• ISBN: 978-1-914484-44-5
• No. of pages: 290
• Dimensions: 162 mm x 243 mm x 27 mm
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > IT, data processing > Data communication, networks; Non-fiction book; SCIENCE / Global Warming & Climate Change, Popular Culture, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture, Climate Change, NATURE / Ecology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Environmental / General, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Social Aspects, Applied ecology, Environmentalist thought & ideology, Communication Studies, Impact of science & technology on society, Media studies: internet, digital media and society, Impact of science and technology on society, Ethical & social aspects of IT, Environmentalist thought and ideology, Internet & Www Industries, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Technology Studies, COMPUTERS / Social Aspects, Greenwashing and other forms of deceptive marketing