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Apparently streaming is very bad for the environment, more so than a February ski-trip to northern Italy and certainly any old SUV
Streaming badness
Who's reducing their youtube time?
It's no doubt an issue but that clip was pretty free of actual verifiable data.
I'd like them to show their working. Otherwise its pretty hard to take a statement like "Streaming Peaky Blinders uses the same CO2 as driving from Birmingham to Manchester" at face value.
I stream while sitting in my SUV with the engine running.
They did this recently on a sciencey podcast I listen to (More or Less: Behind the Statistics).
The claim which had been going around the internet was that streaming an hour of video was as bad as driving 4 miles (or something). It's complete bollocks, obviously 😂
Apparently data centres are extremely efficient (again, obvious when you think about it, they're going to be as electricity costs them money!) and video streaming is amongst the least resource-intensive things they do as there's no additional number-crunching, etc. IIRC they estimated that streaming an hour of video was the equivalent to driving something like 100 yards.
I stream while sitting in my SUV with the engine running.
outside a school
That trailer says that if you stream the whole of Peaky Blinders, it's the same as a 88mile car journey.
Assuming that's true, that's 30 hours of video watching equalling let's say 2 gallons of fuel.
A lot, but is it surprising or alarming?
More or Less (Radio 4) looked at these numbers and the figure was out by a factor of many million.
I think it was neglecting the fact that the same data centre is used by more than one person to stream a movie or something like that. Anyway - fake news.
outside a school
A lot, but is it surprising or alarming?
Or is it bollocks.
More or less debunked this as bollocks
TBF This isn't a shock, did people think the interweb and its associated data storage and transmission ran on Unicorn farts?
I pointed out to my missus that her phone has about the same carbon footprint per day as a large fridge freezer (I think I got the comparison from some article) due to all the data sat behind it, she couldn't fathom what I was on about...
The question is can low power/carbon data centres be done? Because just like with SUVs and flying, peoples will to change their habits doesn't seem to match the "ambition"...
I've always wondered about crypto-currency. I'm perhaps missing something but it seems like a reasonably significant amount of energy is expended on computations which are essentially pointless?
I wonder what the pollution impact from making a comparable amount of BluRays would be. Quite high I would think, once you factor in the manufacture of the discs, boxes etc, distribution, then the retailer overheads like heating and lighting, the fact people drive into town to buy them etc. All that is rolled in with the streaming service.
Mat
SubscriberI’ve always wondered about cyber-currency. I’m perhaps missing something but it seems like a reasonably significant amount of energy is expended on computations which are essentially pointless?
It's not pointless because it makes the transactions on the chain immutable, pointless in the wider context, yes.
However there are other ways of designing cyber currency, proof of stake for example.
gonna call bollocks on that too unless you can cite some evidence? Or did you just want to make your missus cry for no reason 😂I pointed out to my missus that her phone has about the same carbon footprint per day as a large fridge freezer
Dirty Streaming: The Internet's Big Secret' will be available on BBC Three on iPlayer from Thursday 5 March 2020.
Boom!
There goes my irony meter...
Very much doubt some of this.
Data centres are run off the national grid which has mix of energy sources these days. SUV's are primarily petrol or diesel.
I stream while sitting in my SUV with the engine running.
outside a school
Whilst feasting on a steak
Data centres are run off the national grid which has mix of energy sources these days.
And have some pretty hefty diesel generators ready for back up if the grid fails.
And have some pretty hefty diesel generators ready for back up if the grid fails.
So not ruining all the time in fact very rarely at all.
I stream while sitting in my SUV with the engine running.
outside a school
Whilst on a CC with work..
Whilst feasting on a steak
With avocado followed by Nutella.
So climate change is a problem, suv usage is a problem but thousands of data centres are not a problem - or not worth understanding the problem?
At least we should try to get a clear picture?
At least we should try to get a clear picture?
We absolutely should - see all the links above with the clear picture.
So climate change is a problem, suv usage is a problem but thousands of data centres are not a problem – or not worth understanding the problem?
Not sure anyone said that just that some of figures quoted seems very unlikely.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-what-is-the-carbon-footprint-of-streaming-video-on-netflix
At least we should try to get a clear picture?
4K is pretty good on Netflix.
And have some pretty hefty diesel generators ready for back up if the grid fails.
Having worked, literally, in data centers for the first 10 years of my job I can state that they are used for a few hours a year at most.
They are also run very efficiently as running them is the main cost (once all the servers have been purchased) They make use of heat exchanging and other methods to help that efficiency.
Still, great to see that a lot of people listen to More or Less. Should be made mandatory listening for all to get people to realise most of the 'facts' they are provided are in fact bullshit.
massively better for the environment than what's come before it, according to this guy:At least we should try to get a clear picture?
and that's just business use (servers etc). Doesn't even touch on people now not driving to Blockbuster/HMV to get a DVD, elimination of packaging waste/printouts/photos/etc, video conferencing rather than physical travel, not having to physically post letters, bills, etc, etc
I find it hard to take anything a teenager says as fact when they punctuate every sentence with "like"
Don’t forget that the data centres will have large battery backed UPS for the brief time the genie is spooling up, all that nasty lead and acid probably never being used in anger that’ll be replaced every five years or so. How much will make it through to a clean recycling centre or just go to the cheapest waste recovery firm shipping it God knows where for child labour to extract the useful metals?
I’ve always wondered about crypto-currency. I’m perhaps missing something but it seems like a reasonably significant amount of energy is expended on computations which are essentially pointless?
Considering for some cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, notably) the entire point of the computation is to be hard and expensive to solve the answer is yes, bitcoin is a fairly significant polluter.
From the article:
Film and TV writer Beth Webb went in search of the internet and discovered that 'the cloud' is actually a vast network of energy-guzzling data centres and undersea cables.
Cloud is "just another person's computer" shocker.
Streaming video isn't just increasing in use, "cloud" storage, office 365 emails, hell even the Internet is growing all the time. Where do you think the databases for STW forum and the articles are stored? On a Web server in a data centre somewhere.
Energy guzzling? Lolz. Big data centres (Google, Microsoft etc) will have major focuses on power consumption. Also, is it better to have data stored at every single separate customers location, probably on years old machines - or would it be more efficient to store it at a facility that has been purposefully designed for this job and houses hundreds or thousands of customers data all in a single building?
Data centres are worse to the environment than an suv? Give over. 🙄
I did read something last year that said the internet weighs 19g, but needs 50 million horsepower to run.
Sounds about right, about the same as a Bentley Bentayga
Its a bit worrying that a BBC Three piece is completely and thoroughly debunked by a Radio 4 piece that was produced 2 months before it.