TY - CHAP
T1 - DISAGGREGATED FOOTPRINTS
T2 - An Infrastructural Literacy Approach to the Sustainable Internet
AU - Starosielski, Nicole
AU - Vaughan, Hunter
AU - Pasek, Anne
AU - Silcox, Nicholas R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 selection and editorial matter, of Antonio López, Adrian Ivakhiv, Stephen Rust, Miriam Tola, Alenda Y. Chang and Kiu-wai Chu; individual chapters, the contributors.
PY - 2023/1/1
Y1 - 2023/1/1
N2 - In this chapter, we argue that in order to fully assess the environmental impacts of the internet, we need to view internet infrastructure in its disaggregated parts. This disaggregated view requires infrastructural literacy, a precondition, we show, of a sustainable future for the internet. Our chapter first gives an overview of the different infrastructures that compose the internet and how they traditionally figure into its carbon footprint. From there, we evaluate the phenomenon of edge caching and its environmental implications for Netflix’s streaming services. Finally, we explore the possibility of alternative approaches to infrastructural design. We suggest that a disaggregated approach opens up the possibility to leverage the capacities of specific localities and infrastructures along the network toward a more sustainable global system. At the same time, we show that the environmentalist ethos of situating things locally does not easily translate to digital networks.
AB - In this chapter, we argue that in order to fully assess the environmental impacts of the internet, we need to view internet infrastructure in its disaggregated parts. This disaggregated view requires infrastructural literacy, a precondition, we show, of a sustainable future for the internet. Our chapter first gives an overview of the different infrastructures that compose the internet and how they traditionally figure into its carbon footprint. From there, we evaluate the phenomenon of edge caching and its environmental implications for Netflix’s streaming services. Finally, we explore the possibility of alternative approaches to infrastructural design. We suggest that a disaggregated approach opens up the possibility to leverage the capacities of specific localities and infrastructures along the network toward a more sustainable global system. At the same time, we show that the environmentalist ethos of situating things locally does not easily translate to digital networks.
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U2 - 10.4324/9781003176497-13
DO - 10.4324/9781003176497-13
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85172163332
SN - 9781032009421
SP - 111
EP - 118
BT - The Routledge Handbook of Ecomedia Studies
PB - Taylor and Francis
ER -