Steph

Steph

Hey I'm Steph, the resident crazy cat mom, and I'm so excited to hang out with you, bring you laughter, new music along with the classics, and...Full Bio

 

Dark Data vs. The Environment

A lot of things that humans do affect the environment and contribute to global warming in the environmental crisis. There's also a lot of things we don't realize that affect the environment, including the storage of data. Obviously, important data files need to be saved and stored for various reasons. However, there's a lot of unused data out there being stored for nothing. This is what is called dark data, it's what they call digital information that is stored and not being used. It takes a lot of energy to store all of this wasteful data, and it's putting more fossil fuels into the environment. Not every data storage facility uses sustainable energy.

We can help lower our own carbon footprint by deleting our dark data. This could be things like old emails, photos videos, social media posts etc. If every person were to go through and clear out their dark data, we could free up these unused terabytes and potentially 6.4 million tons of CO2 emissions out of the air. This is something I've slowly started doing, I have so many photos of my cat that I don't need. And I would love to clear out old Facebook posts that I made when I was in angsty teenager.

For more information and tips on how you can help the environment, check out this video. In the meantime, I will be continuing to declutter and minimize my digital footprint.

Photo by Guido Bergmann/Bundesregierung via Getty Images)


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