The EviroWhacks Never Stop!!

Is the internet the new enemy of the environment? There is increasing concern in environmental circle over the energy demands of the internet. Mohamed Cheriet of Montreal's Ecole de Technologie Superieure was quoted in the June 3 Vancouver Sun saying that "the Internet pollutes, but people don't understand why it pollutes. It's very, very power-hungry, and we have to reduce its carbon footprint."

Green activists point to the growing number of massive and secretive "server farms" that store and transmit data across the system. Each one can have energy demands equal to a small city.

But before we start shutting down the internet to save the planet, check out a May 16 report from the United Nations Human Rights Council that declares internet access a fundamental human right. "Given that the Internet has become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, combating inequality, and accelerating development and human progress," writes Special Rapporteur Frank LaRue, "ensuring universal access to the Internet should be a priority for all States."

Meanwhile the U.N.'s International Panel on Climate Change recommends a target average global carbon footprint that is one-quarter the burden placed on Mother Earth by a homeless American, according to a 2008 MIT study. It will take a long time for the environmentalists to sort all this out, just don't Google it too much or polar bears will start dying and it will be your fault.

Posted via email from Enviromenment