The digital pixie dust clean-up

The digital pixie dust clean-up

From Monster Under the Bed by European Investment Bank

November 4, 2019 · 23 min · Season 1 · Episode 8

About this episode

This episode explores the real climate impact of the digital sector and challenges misconceptions about digitalization's environmental benefits.

When we speak of the virtual world and storing things in ‘the cloud’, we seldom stop to realize that our digital climate impact is not virtual at all Many people see digitalisation as this magical pixie dust that Tinker Bell sprinkles on old industries to make them all environmentally friendly. Stop printing newspapers and get your news online and suddenly your environmental footprint is down to zero, right? Wrong. In this episode of the Monster Under the Bed podcast we learn: ·        What is the climate impact of the digital sector? ·        What is Jevon’s paradox? ·        What is the digital sector doing to clean up its act? ·        That even when digital services use renewable energy, it might be using up renewable energy that otherwise might be used by more critical sources. So we should hold off on all those cat videos ·        How can you personally curtail the CO2 emissions of our own use of technology? My guests on this episode are the European Investment Bank’s head of…

People in this episode

Guests: Harald Gruber, Shirley Rizk

Topics covered

  • digital climate impact
  • Jevon's paradox
  • renewable energy
  • CO2 emissions
  • digital sector

Keywords

  • digitalisation
  • environmental footprint
  • cat videos
  • technology
  • myths

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: European Investment Bank

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