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By Jack Graham [[link removed]] | Climate change and nature correspondent, UK

A data dilemma

When we store our data in "the cloud", some imagine their files floating up into the sky or entering some intangible online world, ready to be plucked out on request.

But allow me to burst that bubble. Cloud data is stored in huge data centres which resemble warehouses, and require staggering amounts of energy and water to run and stay cool.

Environmentalists are not happy. Especially in Ireland, where about 80 data centres from tech firms including Meta Platforms, Google and Microsoft use 18% of the country's power.

My video colleagues Fintan McDonnell and Mujeb Ahmadzay went to Dublin to find out more about where your cloud data lives [[link removed]]. A European tech hub, Ireland has become the centre of a debate over data centres and the climate.

A view of Europe's largest data centre of TikTok, a social media firm owned by China-headquartered Bytedance, in Hamar, Norway, November 30, 2023. REUTERS/Victoria Klesty

Local councils and green groups say no more data centres should be built. They say it will make it harder to decarbonise the power grid, and take vital public resources like electricity and water from local communities. Ireland is already well off track to deliver its ambitious commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2030.

But the industry says it is powering Ireland’s transition towards clean energy, and the need for data centres is surging globally thanks to AI and virtual reality. A moratorium in Ireland means the infrastructure will go somewhere else, said Seamus Dunne, who directs the Texas-based data centre firm Digital Realty in Ireland and Britain.

"Do you want to stop the growth of a digital economy in the world, or just in Ireland?" he said.

Keeping cool

Around the world, companies are working to reduce data centres' environmental footprint. With cooling the hardware a major challenge, data centres are partnering with district heating systems which can utilise their waste heat. Some firms are even investing in radical ideas like storing data underwater, up in space, or in biological DNA.

We’re not talking about streaming cat videos anymore.

Patrick Bresnihan - Maynooth University

But as our insatiable appetite for data storage grows, new data centres and the energy to power them are struggling to keep up. The booming demand for AI is already driving a worsening shortage of space in Europe's data centres [[link removed]], Reuters reported recently.

"We’re not talking about streaming cat videos anymore," Patrick Bresnihan from Maynooth University told Context. "This explosion in machine learning is going to require far more data."

Therefore, the bigger question is: how much data do we actually need?

Getting fast, reliable data to the fingertips of businesses and consumers comes at a cost. From vast phone libraries of photos to firms crunching big data, how much are people willing to balance the speed of their digital lives with the impacts to climate and nature?

Because, one thing is for certain, these issues are not somewhere up in the clouds.

See you next week,

Jack

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