POTUS visit to India : Buzz in Social and Digital media and its impact on climate change - A Disruptive thought.

POTUS visit to India : Buzz in Social and Digital media and its impact on climate change - A Disruptive Thought

                                  Image Credits : Timothy Greenfield - Sanders/Corbin/Getty

Ever since the announcement of the 2 days schedule of POTUS (President Of The United Staes, Donald Trump), FLOTUS (First Lady Of The United States, Melania Trump) and PDOTUS - (President’s Daughter Of The United States, Ivanka Trump) visit to India (Ahmedabad, Agra and Delhi),  googolplex amount of data (energy guzzling medium) is being created, generated and consumed by the Oceanic amount of space that is finding it’s place in various print, electronic and social media, which is getting finally stored in those unending farms of energy guzzling data centres across the world. There will be scores of articles, analysis, discussions and debates by experts and policy makers, which will span the print and electronic media that will analyse what the benefits and pitfalls, if any, of the visit of Trump will be for India. I am no expert in the diplomatic relations between the two of our countries to comment on this issue, therefore, this post of mine will be on what we data consumers can  responsibly do in the current era of energy guzzling data consuming society.

Dime a dozen amount of forwards - some with heavy images videos and data - are getting circulated in the social media and we Indians are majorly present on these digital platforms. Latest data reveals that there are an estimated 400 plus million users of WhatsApp and another 350 million users of FB in India and add to this other platforms like Instagram, you tube, twitter etc. we can imagine how massive is the Indian data consumption. The exponential growth  of internet and the anti inflationary pricing for consumption of data that most cellular operators provide for the users, and the resultant rapid increase in data consumption by Indians, augurs well for bridging the gap of the digital divide that exists between us and the developed economies. But then  what does it do to the already stressed planet earth? As a growing number of organisations seek to become major players in today’s data-driven economy, the business of data centres have become one of the most important pieces of modern digital infrastructure growth. However, as we continue to face the fear of the the ice caps melting at an alarming rate due to an alleged climate change, is it really possible to sustain energy-guzzling data centres whilst trying to save the planet?

One can majorly observe the role  played by most climate change activist, which are primarily focused on limiting emissions from industries that include automotive, aviation and energy sectors. But then we rarely come across activists proactively speaking on what the communications industry and we - the users of this Industry, are contributing, directly or indirectly,  in generating more carbon emissions like most other sectors. Let me explain what I mean by this. Every day an estimated 400 plus millions of us in India are consuming huge amount of data most of it is for gossip mongering and lighthearted jokes and such other things and not really meant for education and empowerment. All of us partake in those ritualistic social media forwards of unending amount of data (videos and images)transmission and reception and generation, which have no education value whatsoever but get stored in those energy guzzling data centres.

A recent report published in 2016, has stated that the Worlds data centres use huge amount of energy - 416.2 terawatts, which was significantly higher than an estimated 300 terawatt hours of energy that United Kingdom consumes. The data centres are believed to be consuming about three percent of the global electricity supply and are accounting for about two percent of total greenhouse gas emissions. It is said that the data centres have the same carbon footprint emissions (about 3%)as that of the aviation industry. By 2040, storing digital data is set to create 14 percent of the world’s emissions, around the same proportion as the US does today. This is the scenario under the current situation when only about half of the world’s population is connected to the internet. Imagine what happens to the data deluge when this number increases, which of course is mandated for an equitable and just growth of human society. This means the need for data centres and server farms is only going to increase as time passes and more people join the internet. This, in addition to the fact that the amount of data that each person creates is expanding exponentially, means that the pressure for data centres will increase by manifold as this industry keeps growing. The launch of 5G, the new wave of IoT devices, and a thriving use of mobile devices for almost all uses will only compound the problem. As more devices become connected more data will be needed to be processed than ever before.

We can all contribute incrementally to this cause, by avoiding generating those unnecessary data, including the ones each one of us are ritualistically and routinely sending and receding on Trumps forthcoming visit. And it is these small -delta- measures which can work like the proverbial song in the famous Kannada film Bangarada Manushya which says ‘:  ಹನಿ ಹನಿ ಗೂಡ್ದ್ರೆ ಹಳ್ಳ, ತೆನೆ ತೆನೆ ಗೂಡ್ದ್ರೆ ಬಳ್ಳ’, that will help in reducing our individual carbon foot prints, which will collective help in reducing the burden on our Mother Earth.

Long live planet Earth