The internet doesn't intrinsically consume fossil fuels and never has.
It consumes electricity.
We need to focus our attention on the electricity production sector. Tax fossil fuel burning to internalize the social cost it puts on all of us, and let the free market eradicate the burning because it can't compete against cleaner sources. Consumers like datacenters will always end up clustering around the cheapest electricity source that's close enough to population centers for latency requirements.
As someone who believes climate change is a very real, existential threat to civilization, it's incredibly frustrating to see articles like this that misdirect our attention at consumers, when the only real solution will come by focusing on producers.
It's a waste of time, attention, and political capital that we can't afford.
It consumes electricity.
We need to focus our attention on the electricity production sector. Tax fossil fuel burning to internalize the social cost it puts on all of us, and let the free market eradicate the burning because it can't compete against cleaner sources. Consumers like datacenters will always end up clustering around the cheapest electricity source that's close enough to population centers for latency requirements.
As someone who believes climate change is a very real, existential threat to civilization, it's incredibly frustrating to see articles like this that misdirect our attention at consumers, when the only real solution will come by focusing on producers.
It's a waste of time, attention, and political capital that we can't afford.