this video is sponsored by brilliant if
you stick around to the end I'll give
you a link to get 20% off a premium
membership the Internet is used by over
4 billion people worldwide and believe
it or not I'm one of those for billing I
not only spend large chunks of my days
waiting through Twitter feeds and random
subreddits but now my job relies on the
video streaming capabilities of YouTube
in other parts of my life I try to
reduce my environmental impact but for
all the effort I put into creating
environmentally ethical daily habits my
internet usage always seems to get a
pass one of the reasons I don't think as
critically about the Internet and the
environment might have to do with the
relative invisibility of the web's
inner workings it's harder to see the
impact because of that invisibility
today I'm going to dig into the
infrastructure of the Internet in order
to truly understand its environmental
consequences if the IT sector was a
country it would rank only behind the US
and China in terms of global energy
demand although there are really four
main areas of the digital world that
drives that massive energy use the
internet really relies heavily on two
data centers and network communication
so first data centers in a sense data
centers are the new form of factories in
our digital world they're the internet
materialized for every website search or
uploaded video information gets drawn
upon and stored in the thousands of
stacks of computers that make up a data
center essentially the internet that we
interact with every day is just an
intuitive and user-friendly way to
access those servers and for companies
like Google the amount of information
that data centers manage is massive that
we know of Google currently runs 16 data
centers that act like interconnected
nodes to handle over 40,000 search
queries happening every second to
function well then the
engine like centers require a large
amount of electricity this is partly due
to the fact that each of those forty
thousand searches require a little bit
of energy but also because all of those
computers stack together generate a lot
of heat and the best way to cool all of
them down is through air conditioning a
2015 study puts data center usage at
around 300 terawatt-hours per year in
2012 which was roughly 2 percent of
global demand but as services like video
streaming become more prevalent data
center energy requirements have only
increased that same study predicts that
data center energy demand could well
become 13% of the globe's thirst for
electricity and if all this energy
demand relies heavily on fossil fuels
this could easily spell a large boom in
greenhouse gas emissions the second
piece of the internet puzzle our
communication networks
according to a recent Greenpeace report
networks made up 29% of the eyeties
energy footprint in 2017 essentially the
Internet network is what allows our
computers and phones to access data
centers they are the complicated system
of roads and checkpoints that allow us
to travel through the web but in order
to push data from Internet servers to
our devices we need physical wiring and
receiver infrastructure which requires
energy on top of the physical
installation of communication feeds
carried out by Internet service
providers routers and receivers send in
very simple terms electrical signals
from data centers to your internet
device the total energy requirements of
communication networks can depend on how
you calculate them but one 2012 study
asserts that the total global network
communications energy usage was 354
terawatt-hours per year or the
equivalent energy needed to power 30 2.9
million US homes for a year at a
predicted growth rate of over 10% that
number has only grown in the last seven
years
but just because the Internet's
infrastructure requires energy doesn't
necessarily mean that the electricity
has to have a high emissions footprint
attached to it there are big tech
companies like Google and Facebook that
are making long strides towards a
greener Internet through purchasing
renewable energy from utilities and
encouraging energy efficiency as
streaming begins to take over the lion's
share of data and energy usage
associated with the internet with
estimates and now claiming video
services account for 80% of Internet
traffic it's important to understand
that there are two paths forward one
that appreciates the environmental
consequences of the internet and the
other that relies on a business-as-usual
fossil fuel reliant model - video
giant's are treading these divergent
paths YouTube and Netflix greenpeace
rated both companies on a number of
different factors like transparency
energy makeup and efficiency netflix
received a deep in part because it
rarely makes public the composition of
its energy usage relies on Amazon Web
Services servers which run on
non-renewable fuels and because of its
lack of advocacy and leadership when it
comes to greening data centers and
ultimately the internet YouTube on the
other hand received an a because it is
owned and operated by Google which has
purchased over 2.5 gigawatts of
renewable energy for its data servers as
implemented tools like machine learning
and their centers to better streamline
storage and recall as well as committing
to and being transparent about a 100
percent renewable goal for its energy
demand ultimately the Internet's
energy requirements are large and are
only getting larger if we're not careful
this energy will mean more emissions and
consumption of fossil fuels
but the internet also has the potential
to not only be green but also in the
case of a commodity like DVDs possibly
help us do away with some excessive
material economies some tech companies
like Google are working towards making
data centers and infrastructure more
efficient and greener but a lot aren't
the Internet can provide us with so much
but it will only be a positive
environmental force when the engines at
its core stop running on fuels of a past
age the Internet is definitely a
complicated place it involves computers
codes and seemingly all sorts of magic
luckily brilliant has an amazing course
on the essentials of computer science
that might help you better understand
the world behind the screen brilliant is
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problem solve which is exactly what
you'll get when you dive into their
computer science essentials course this
course is awesome because you're not
just sitting back and reading instead
brilliant peppers in all sorts of
quizzes to keep you engaged and learning
ultimately if you're like me and new to
computer science or just want to explore
topics like geometry or physics through
interactive courses then brilliant is
the way to go so if you want to start
learning about algorithms and the
essentials of computer science go to
brilliant org slash
OCC or click the link in the description
and sign up for free as a bonus the
first 200 people that go to that link
will get 20% off their annual premium
membership everyone Charlie here thank
you so much for watching this video as
always was made possible by people like
you supporting me on patreon they've
helped make this whole YouTube dream a
reality and made my video making hobby
into a full-time gig so thank you so
much to my patrons and I will see you in
two weeks