[[../writing/Bibliography|Bibliography]] Pasek, Anne. “Getting Into Fights With Data Centers: Or, a Modest Proposal for Reframing the Climate Politics of ICT.” White Paper. Experimental Methods and Media Lab, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario. July 2023. https://emmlab.info/Resources_page/Data%20Center%20Fights-_digital.pdf. "We’re used to thinking about carbon footprints in a certain way: one where the connections between our consumer habits and environmental impacts are pretty direct. We all know the script: if we want to make the number go down, we need to consume less. This… doesn’t hold true in the same way for network data. This is because, for information to travel across our networks, much of the equipment that makes up that network needs to be always on, always available. Its electrical draw is fixed—it consumes the same amount regardless of how much data is moving through the figurative tubes. When you use a calculator to estimate the carbon footprint of streaming, sending, or storing something, it takes a guess at a proportionate share of all the energy consumed by the networks entangled in that action. However, this doesn’t mean that swearing off Netflix will actually result in a commensurate reduction in the network’s electrical use or its resulting climate impacts. The network is going to stay on; the data centre hosting that video will still draw the same amount of power." ^4474cf Data centers can affect your local water table (especially if you live somewhere prone to drought), electrical prices, and the likelihood of black outs. They can also cause deeply unpleasant (and unending) noise pollution to people and animals that live close to these sites.