The Dark Cloud: The Hidden Costs of the Digital World
Description
An unflinching investigation reveals the underbelly of digital technology--and how damaging it is to the environment.
The Dark Cloud is the searing exposé of the immense toll the "cloud" takes on our environment. A simple "like" sent from our smartphones mobilizes a cascade of invisible consequences. This small notification, crossing the seven operating layers of the internet, travels around the world, using submarine cables, telephone antennas, and data centers, going as far as the Arctic Circle in what will soon constitute the largest infrastructure built by man.
It turns out that the digital world, essential for communicating, working, and consuming, is much more tangible than we would like to believe. Today, it absorbs 10 percent of the world's electricity and represents nearly 4 percent of the planet's carbon dioxide emissions. We are struggling to understand these impacts, as they are obscured to us in the mirage of "the cloud."
In this follow-up to his global bestselling book, The Rare Metals War, Pitron, an activist-journalist, researched the dark truth behind the easy mirage of our digital world, in an investigation carried out over two years, across four continents. The result shows the anatomy of a technology virtual only in name. Pitron argues that the cloud needs to be exposed and understood--because our future is implicated.
Praise for The Rare Metals War:
"Pitron weighs the awful price of refining the materials, ably blending investigative journalism with insights from science, politics and business."
Simon Ings, New Scientist
"[E]xposes the dirty underpinnings of clean technologies in a debut that raises valid questions about energy extraction."
Publishers Weekly
"An expert account of a poorly understood but critical element in our economy ... Pitron delivers a gripping, detailed, and discouraging explanation."
Kirkus Reviews
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Reviews
"Guillaume Pitron recalls the origins of digital technology and explains how this new communication tool has catastrophic consequences on our environment ... What happens when you send an email? What is the geography of clicks? What ecological and geopolitical challenges do they bring without our knowledge? This is the subject of The Dark Cloud ... For two years, the journalist followed, on four continents, the route of our emails, our likes and our vacation photos."
--Margherita Nasi, Le Monde
"It reveals the environmental cost of a dematerialized sector. Between the strategies of the giants who keep us in the illusion of a clean Internet and the difficulty of feeling pollution that has no taste or smell, the investigator reveals the underside of the Internet."
--Marina Fabre, Novethic
"An incredible investigation."
--France Inter
"Absolutely fascinating."
--Ali Baddou, C l'hebdo, France 5
"A landmark book."
--Le Figaro
"An illuminating study."
--L'Obs
"A riveting investigation that, just like a thriller, sets out to open our eyes about the material impact as well as the economic and geopolitical issues of a totally wired world."
--ADN
"Insightful."
--Sciences et Avenir
"A colossal work."
--Marianne
Praise for The Rare Metals War:
"An expert account of a poorly understood but critical element in our economy... Pitron delivers a gripping, detailed, and discouraging explanation... A well-rendered explanation of further bad news on the clean energy front."
--Kirkus Reviews
"[E]xposes the dirty underpinnings of clean technologies in a debut that raises valid questions about energy extraction."
--Publishers Weekly
"[T]he journalist and filmmaker warns against the optimistic belief that technology is the solution...At a time when many claim to be "citizens of the world" or retreat into naive or hypocritical protectionism, Pitron's book is an attempt to open people's eyes to the consequences of their societal choices and lifestyles."
--Green European Journal
"French Writer and analyst Guillaume Pitron warns about growing reliance on rare-earth metals--which are necessary to build high-tech products...He shines a light on "the untold story" of the energy and digital transitions."
--European Scientist
"Recognizing that the latest technologies might not be as green as we like to think is a good place to start planning for a better world."
--John Arlidge, The Sunday Times
"Demand for rare metals can only increase in the move to a zero-carbon economy. The Rare Metals War by Guillaume Pitron lays out the terrifying cost...Zipping from an abandoned mine in the Mojave desert to the toxic lakes and cancer-afflicted areas of Baotou in China, Pitron weighs the awful price of refining the materials, ably blending investigative journalism with insights from science, politics and business."
--New Scientist
"An incredible investigation."
-- "France Inter"
