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Want to fight global warming? Consider not writing so many emails

Right now, data centres consume about 2 per cent of the world's electricity, but that's expected to reach 8 per cent by 2030

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Storing old emails, photos and files on servers has a huge climate cost

Emily Chasan | Bloomberg
Everyone has seen the warning. At the bottom of the email, it says: “Please consider the environment before printing.” But for those who care about global warming, you might want to consider not writing so many emails in the first place.

More and more, people rely on their electronic mailboxes as a life organiser. Old emails, photos, and files from years past sit undisturbed, awaiting your search for a name, lost address, or maybe a photo of an old boyfriend. The problem is that all those messages require energy to preserve them. And despite the tech industry’s focus on renewables, the