Environmental Impacts of Computing Archives

hand holds a globe on a fork over a fire, illustration - Credit: Master1305

Our House Is On Fire: The Climate Emergency and Computing’s Responsibility

We will most likely never do better than a best guess at computing’s carbon footprint, but given uncertainties it would be safer and more responsible to act on the assumption that higher estimates could be closer to the truth—especially since the pace of warming has exceeded our expectations at every point. But in big-picture terms, the difference between 1.8% and 3.9% does not fundamentally change our mission: computing’s emissions must be reduced urgently and drastically. How are we going to achieve this?

The ‘Invisible’ Materiality of Information Technology

It’s difficult to see the ecological impact of IT when its benefits are so blindingly bright.

Owning Computing’s Environmental Impact

Communications of the ACM, March 2019
By Andrew A. Chien

“It is time for the computing community to face up to computing’s growing environmental impact—and take responsibility for it! And further, to undertake research, design, and operations to reduce this growing impact.”