Streaming, unsustainable ?

[J4CKO]

Just read this

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/data-centres-en...


How does it compare to the creation, duplication and transport of physical media ? to watch a movie people used to rent a VHS/DVD, which involved them driving to the video store, driving home, then having to repeat the exercise to return it. The video store had to be staffed, heated and lit as well. I guess people watch and download more stuff nowadays but a double round trip to rent a movie in a car would I expect use inordinately more energy than a 4GB download.

Plus the landfill generated in the name of old media.

Hasnt it just moved the energy consumption ?

[Narcisus]

Looking at that link I wish we had a fancy sound haven like that when I was a printer ! :-)

[Mr Pointy]

BenjiS said:

Amazon, who provide the data centres for their own and other streaming services are aiming for 100% renewable power. They’re currently over 50%...

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/sustainability/

But that still means that 100% of the power they use ends up as heat. Unless they use this waste heat to replace another source of consumption then the overall power consumed is still rising.

[cb31]

Mr Pointy said:

But that still means that 100% of the power they use ends up as heat. Unless they use this waste heat to replace another source of consumption then the overall power consumed is still rising.

I'm sure people will come up with ways to reuse the heat and therefore power consumption of the recipient will go down and hopefully cancel most of it out. Current examples I can think of are the power station in Iceland that uses excess heat to heat the blue lagoon pool, waste incinerators that heat local swimming pools.

[98elise]

Mr Pointy said:

BenjiS said:

Amazon, who provide the data centres for their own and other streaming services are aiming for 100% renewable power. They’re currently over 50%...

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/sustainability/

But that still means that 100% of the power they use ends up as heat. Unless they use this waste heat to replace another source of consumption then the overall power consumed is still rising.

All energy ends up as heat regardless.