Impacts of the Internet on the Environment, Beyond Carbon
draft-knodel-beyond-carbon-00

WG Working Group                                               M. Knodel
Internet-Draft                                                       CDT
Intended status: Informational                              24 July 2024
Expires: 25 January 2025

       Impacts of the Internet on the Environment, Beyond Carbon
                     draft-knodel-beyond-carbon-00

Abstract

   The global internet is comprised of vast interconnected networks
   spanning nearly every surface of planet and sky that, together with
   user devices, consumes energy and emits greenhouse gases.  The true
   scale and proposed mitigations of the carbon footprint of the
   internet are the subject of important research.  The internet also
   requires the depletion of other natural resources beyond carbon,
   namely land, water, electromagnetic spectrum and minerals.
   Electronic waste contributes in particularly acute ways to
   environmental pollution.  This document surveys the impacts of the
   internet on the environment and includes, but goes beyond, energy use
   and carbon footprint to look at the consumption of natural resources
   and environmental waste.

About This Document

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   Status information for this document may be found at
   https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-knodel-beyond-carbon/.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  The Internet's Environmental Impacts  . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Carbon  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.2.  Natural resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
       2.2.1.  Land  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
       2.2.2.  Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
       2.2.3.  Electromagnetic spectrum  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
       2.2.4.  Minerals  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.3.  Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.  Guiding Principles  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   4.  Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   7.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Appendix A.  Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   Much research has been invested in understanding environmental
   impacts.  Research such as the ‘UN Digital Economy Report: Shaping an
   environmentally sustainable and inclusive digital future’ examines
   the true scale and proposed mitigations of the carbon footprint of
   the internet [UN].  Related research by the World Health Organisation
   primer on the health impacts of e-Waste details the harms incurred
   when the majority of e-waste is processed [WHO].

   This document aims to briefly categorize a complete survey of
   environmental impacts due to a global internet operating at scale.
   It is the expectation that these impacts are persistent and some will
   have few to no mitigations, even given a very long arc of innovation
   and scientific advancement.  That is because each of these impacts
   are intimately tied to the physical limits of our planet, which are
   far more finite than our imaginations are capacious [Jansen].

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   It is, however, of utmost importance to confront and understand the
   planet's limitations and the ways in which internet growth pushes up
   against them.

   A 'climate justice' approach to building internet architecture not
   only reduces the internet’s own environmental impact but reduces
   overall environmental impacts of our society.  [Manojlovic]

   This document summarizes the most promising mitigations in the
   context of internet networking.  We further suggest a principled
   approach to guide understanding the problem space and taking
   measurable action.  Our proposed approach aims for technical
   excellence, is informed by prior implementation and testing,
   documents clearly and concisely; and is open and fair in its
   assessments.

2.  The Internet's Environmental Impacts

   This section is arranged in three sub-sections: 2.1.  Carbon, 2.2.
   Natural Resources and 2.3.  Waste.  In the first section, of course
   carbon is a natural resource but in this document we rely on the vast
   research and documentation elsewhere to discuss the consumption of
   energy and its emissions in the form of greenhouse gas.  Land, water,
   electromagnetic spectrum and minerals are all finite, non-renewable
   resources that are consumed by internet infrastructure and these
   impacts are explained in depth with citations.  Lastly waste is
   discussed as its own very consequential impact on the pollution of
   the rest of the environment, living and nonliving.

2.1.  Carbon

   Carbon footprint is a concept that takes into consideration emissions
   and global warming and the ozone layer.  The projected impacts, and
   mitigations of global warming are extensively detailed in the
   Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment [IPCC].
   Progress on allowing the ozone layer to recover since the 1980s is at
   risk of being undone as a result of the deployment of low-earth orbit
   constellation satellites [Ferreira].

   Energy consumption is the unequal distribution of and limitations on
   use of carbon energy for various purposes.  The share of global
   carbon emissions is unevenly distributed across countries, but also
   within countries across income levels [Oxfam].

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2.2.  Natural resources

   Natural resources such as land, water, minerals and electromagnetic
   spectrum are all impacted by increased digitalisation and the growth
   of the internet.  The Earth-system-science framework defining the
   nine “planetary boundaries” of Earth concludes that six of these have
   been transgressed, suggesting that Earth is now well outside of the
   safe operating space for humanity.  [Richardson]

2.2.1.  Land

   Internet infrastructure is often strategically placed geographically
   and geopolitically and impacts the finite space of the Earth’s crust
   and limits use of this land for other humans.

   Animals and other ecosystems.  The Intergovernmental Science-Policy
   Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global
   Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in 2019
   provided a IPCC-like basis for policy and decision making, evaluating
   15000 scientific publications, from 145 authors from 40 countries.
   It found 82% of wild mammal biomass had been lost in the last 50
   years, and called for transformative changes to avoid further
   biodiversity loss.  [IPBES]

   Undersea internet cables and related infrastructure disrupt the sea
   bed.  Furthermore untouched areas of the deep sea are being proposed
   for mining instead of reusing minerals already in circulation
   [Dutzik].

2.2.2.  Water

   For cooling.

   For mineral extraction.

   Limits use for other humans but animals and other ecosystems, too
   [Manojlovic]

2.2.3.  Electromagnetic spectrum

   Finite resource allocated to large companies and developed countries
   despite ITU pledge to allocate otherwise.

2.2.4.  Minerals

   Extractive of finite resources which minerals.

   Use of water.

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   Effects of scarring and degrading earth crust.

   Destroying habitats.

   Poisonous at the time of extraction.

   Limited use for other things.

2.3.  Waste

   In the air -- pollution from fossil fuels, burning e-waste.

   On earth -- sanitation, landfills, polluting soil, limiting use of
   space, ecosystem disruption.

   In the sea -- undersea cables, mineral extraction byproducts, e-waste
   shipping, pollution.

   In space -- debris, crowding the sky scape, congestion, limit of use.

3.  Guiding Principles

   As the practice of digital sustainability is still in development, we
   suggest the following principles to guide IETF’s approach to the
   topic.  These principles are designed to be more enduring concepts
   that can inform solutions even as the technical specifics of those
   solutions evolve with the field.

   *  Open and fair: Claims about environmental impacts must be publicly
      verifiable, such as linking to publicly available evidence and
      allowing third party auditing.  Publicly verifiable evidence
      contributes to higher confidence in the measurements and
      facilitates independent monitoring and assessment as well as
      ensures fairer participation and competition.

   *  Timely: Where possible, move towards real-time information about
      impacts over an annual cadence or slower cadence.  More timely
      data enables more responsiveness and a higher resolution of
      understanding.

   *  Within planetary boundaries: Treat the carrying capacity of the
      planet, as determined by the best available science, as a
      constraint to work within.  There is a safe operating capacity of
      the planet, that when breached represents a critical risk to
      people and ecosystems we are part of, causing avoidable harm.

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   *  Demand and supply can both be levers: Reducing demand for
      resources is also a valid and important approach in addition to
      providing supply more efficiently.

4.  Conclusions

   Particular takeaways to mitigate effects: reduce extraction,
   efficiency in architecture to reduce cooling, more equitable resource
   distribution, data localisation impacts, backwards compatibility and
   protocol maintenance as antidotes to "Green IP".

5.  Security Considerations

   There are no security considerations for this document.

6.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.

7.  Informative References

   [Dutzik]   Dutzik, T., "We Don’t Need Deep-Sea Mining", 2024,
              <https://publicinterestnetwork.org/wp-
              content/uploads/2024/06/We-Dont-Need-Deep-Sea-Mining-
              2024.pdf>.

   [Ferreira] P., F. J., "Potential Ozone Depletion From Satellite
              Demise During Atmospheric Reentry in the Era of Mega-
              Constellations", 2024,
              <https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL109280>.

   [IPBES]    IPBES, "Summary for Policymakers of the Global Assessment
              Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services", 2019,
              <https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3553579>.

   [IPCC]     Calvin, "International Panel on Climate Change Synthesis
              Report 2023", 2023, <https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/>.

   [Jansen]   Jansen, F., "The problem is growth", 2023,
              <https://doi.org/10.58704/dmnx-1r61>.

   [Manojlovic]
              Manojlovic, V., "Internet Infrastructure and Climate
              Justice", 2022, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/
              interim-2022-eimpactws-01/materials/slides-interim-2022-
              eimpactws-01-sessa-05-social-00.pdf>.

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   [Oxfam]    Khalfan, A., "Climate Equality, A planet for the 99
              percent", 2023, <https://policy-
              practice.oxfam.org/resources/climate-equality-a-planet-
              for-the-99-621551/>.

   [Richardson]
              Richardson, K., "Earth beyond six of nine planetary
              boundaries", 2023,
              <https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/sciadv.adh2458>.

   [UN]       United Nations, "Digital Economy Report 2024.", 2024,
              <https://www.un-ilibrary.org/content/
              books/9789213589779.>.

   [WHO]      World Health Organization, "Electronic Waste (e-Waste)",
              n.d., <https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/
              electronic-waste-(e-waste).>.

Appendix A.  Acknowledgments

   TODO acknowledge.

Author's Address

   Mallory Knodel
   CDT
   Email: mknodel@cdt.org

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