3 ms·

I also bet that using less performance oriented languages like Php, Ruby, Python in the datacenter instead of Rust and C++ also has a huge Carbon footprint. Ho

I also bet that using less performance oriented languages like Php, Ruby, Python in the datacenter instead of Rust and C++ also has a huge Carbon footprint. Honestly, the only way forward to really fight climate change is to decouple carbon from power generation. Everything else is just wasting time re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. That means we need to be all in on zero emissions power generation (wind, solar, hydro, nuclear) as well as conversion of combustion engines to electric (see electric cars).

jeffbee 4y ago
Datacenter energy usage is irrelevant to our global situation. A large cloud datacenter uses a similar amount of power as 1 large aircraft. All U.S. datacenters combined consumed about 1% of U.S. electric power, meaning they constitute much less than 1% of all energy demand. And despite the fact that cloud capacity has exploded in the last 10 years, electric power consumption of datacenters has barely increased, because the cloud is so dramatically more efficient than other datacenters.
- AtlasBarfed 4y ago
  source? Bitcoin network allegedly uses as much electricity as Argentina based on headlines (and... those are headlines). Yes that's global, but still.
  - ElevenLathe 4y ago
    I'm not sure of the source (as I'm not the parent), but I wouldn't classify crypto farms as "datacenters". They have very low needs in terms of bandwidth and reliability. Many of them are barns on consumer ISP connections filled with bare mobos sitting on pieces of cardboard, or other similar arrangements that are presumably OK given the economics of crypto, but wouldn't be sellable even as cloud compute for most purposes in the current market (it might be OK for batch-type stuff that doesn't involve tons of transfer -- some kinds of scientific workloads like Folding@Home maybe?).
- Peanuts99 4y ago
  How can all US data centers make up 1% of US electrical power and at the same time only use the same amount of energy as 1 large aircraft?
  - jeffbee 4y ago
    Each.
mellavora 4y ago
(see electric cars^h^h^h^hbikes). There, fixed it for you.
- _carbyau_ 4y ago
  Given how many cars exist globally, I do wonder where 100's of Kgs of batteries per car is going to come from. A bike requires much less and indeed most people could get by with one so I'd like to see more of this too. But it doesn't cater to the lowest common denominator of population use cases, it doesn't signal wealth, and convenience is king. So I don't think it will come about.

jeffbee 4y ago

Datacenter energy usage is irrelevant to our global situation. A large cloud datacenter uses a similar amount of power as 1 large aircraft. All U.S. datacenters combined consumed about 1% of U.S. electric power, meaning they constitute much less than 1% of all energy demand. And despite the fact that cloud capacity has exploded in the last 10 years, electric power consumption of datacenters has barely increased, because the cloud is so dramatically more efficient than other datacenters.

AtlasBarfed 4y ago
source? Bitcoin network allegedly uses as much electricity as Argentina based on headlines (and... those are headlines). Yes that's global, but still.
- ElevenLathe 4y ago
  I'm not sure of the source (as I'm not the parent), but I wouldn't classify crypto farms as "datacenters". They have very low needs in terms of bandwidth and reliability. Many of them are barns on consumer ISP connections filled with bare mobos sitting on pieces of cardboard, or other similar arrangements that are presumably OK given the economics of crypto, but wouldn't be sellable even as cloud compute for most purposes in the current market (it might be OK for batch-type stuff that doesn't involve tons of transfer -- some kinds of scientific workloads like Folding@Home maybe?).
Peanuts99 4y ago
How can all US data centers make up 1% of US electrical power and at the same time only use the same amount of energy as 1 large aircraft?
- jeffbee 4y ago
  Each.

mellavora 4y ago

(see electric cars^h^h^h^hbikes). There, fixed it for you.

_carbyau_ 4y ago
Given how many cars exist globally, I do wonder where 100's of Kgs of batteries per car is going to come from. A bike requires much less and indeed most people could get by with one so I'd like to see more of this too. But it doesn't cater to the lowest common denominator of population use cases, it doesn't signal wealth, and convenience is king. So I don't think it will come about.