World Wide Waste - How digital is killing our planet—And what we can do about it

by Gerry McGovern

Speaking out when it’s unpopular.
Back in the day, Henry David Thoreau raged at the robber barons—the big shots of their age, despoiling the environment in the name of progress.
Deep in the throes of the seemingly unstoppable growth of tech, a modern-day Thoreau has emerged in the guise of Gerry McGovern—decrying the massive, hidden negative impacts of tech on the environment.
McGovern has thoroughly documented in World Wide Waste how tech damages the Earth—and what we should be doing about it. It is not just the acres of discarded computer hardware conveniently dumped in Third World countries.
Every time an email is downloaded it contributes to global warming. Every tweet, search, check of a webpage creates pollution. Digital is physical. Those data centers are not in the Cloud. They’re on land in massive physical buildings packed full of computers hungry for energy. It seems invisible. It seems cheap and free. It’s not. Digital costs the Earth.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Environment, Technology, Sustainability

184 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 22, 2020

Reviews

[Find me on The Storygraph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elke mail, elke tweet, elke foto die je stuurt verbruikt energie. Je merkt er niks van en wellicht denk je er niet aan. Maar ondertussen stijgt het energieverbruik van datacentra. Het is hoog tijd om eens goed na te denken over ons achteloos gebruik van 'Digital'.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you work in digital or use digital tools daily, care about the environment and love data, you should read Gerry's book World Wide Waste.
A real eye-opener on how digital impacts the environment and what we can do to help reduce that impact.
Gerry uses data, lots of data, to support his claims, which he does pretty much a central element in his work.
Hopefully, this will make you think about how you can change your digital habits, be it by reducing your useless data, think before sharing heavy docs, or sending out that long e-mail with attachments, consider alternatives to video chats, etc. Thanks to Gerry, I know I will consider the impact of digital on the environment when making decisions about digital.
Thank you, Gerry!

[Christopher Strebel · Rating 5 out of 5]

World Wide Waste is a “A real eye opener” and a must read! Many people who joined web and digital in the early dot com years did so to transform the world into a more efficient place, where getting rid of paper translated into helping the environment. Unfortunately, this turned into a habit of saving everything online and in clouds.

Gerry's book explains how dangerous and harmful to the environment this. He explains how we need to think of our digital lifestyle and change digital habits, be it by deleting useless data, sending out an email reply to all that recirculates heavy attachments or thinking before sharing heavy docs. Gerry explains simple choices we make online can help lessen impact on the environment.

[Ariënne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really inspirational. Though a lot of repetition.

[Laurent Bobdarko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an overwhelming, yet underestimated topic.
Digital is everywhere now and it is up to each of us to realize it has a huge environmental impact.
This book presents lots of stats and sources, painting a global view of the situation, as well as best practices.
It is a must-read for anyone, especially if you are working on IT.
It could have been a boring, depressing tale but this is a stimulating call to action.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily the most important book I've read in years. It answered the worries I've had for a long time, things that I don't see spoken of elsewhere.

It's something everyone should read, especially if you, like me, are working in digital, creative or you're feeling overwhelmed by the influx of new content and the algorithms that punish you if you don't keep up the same pace.

To quote McGovern: If it's free, the Earth pays the price.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, with some shocking statistics. Some of the calculations felt exaggerated at times, and some of the tangents a little far from the point, but made a clear case regardless. The core issue seems to be that energy is cheap and easy to exploit, leaving me wondering why energy is in fact so cheap and what a more reasonable price might look like. Also wondering if a review such as this is just contributing to the waste, and how to measure value against the waste it creates.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content of this book was good. I will be putting it to good use and think that in my organisation these arguments will be more effective at bringing about positive change in digital habits than any best practice / cost cutting / efficiency argument will. It was a shame that the author often came across a bit ranty or whiny.

[Sage · Rating 5 out of 5]

what an incredibly necessary piece of writing. this book should be required reading in high schools, and every level of business and digital/technology focused degrees in higher education. as relevant to the everyday person as it is to the business and technological entrepreneur. this will definitely be a book i return to again and again.

[Andrew Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a call to arms for people who work in digital without blanket rejection of digital. It embraces the possibility of digital while also exposing its excesses, giving the reader clear action items to make it all better.

[Jyv · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for everyone, as a matter of urgency.

[Michael Andersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an eye-opener and it contained many facts that I found very interesting, like for example whether a book or ebook is more sustainable.

[Paul Hardman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking and terrifying to read as someone working in digital