Summer is the time for most divorces, mosquito bites, sunburn, good experiences, time to breathe – and not least the time for photos. Pictures of tanned children, sunsets, sunrises, pictures from the beach, weird pictures from dinners with a little too much house wine, pictures of overpacked cars, mountain trips, pictures of friends meeting, and selfies with dolphins. Social media is overflowing with pictures this summer. Most of the photos show perfect holidays with perfect families and perfect subjects. At least apparently. When I was young and on holiday, I had a disposable camera that could be used both underwater and above water. You got this one chance to take a picture. The excitement was great when we developed the pictures after the holiday. Paper photo from the time you only got one chance. From the author’s collection. Photo: Privat Now I have a box of weird and funny paper pictures. Imperfect and unfiltered. It is not easy to understand what I was thinking when I took the pictures, but they give me a lot of laughs when I rarely mess around in the box. For the most part, the box just sits there gathering dust. Now I have 20 photos of the same sunrise on my phone, and only the most perfect of them are shared with the world. This holiday I didn’t even send postcards to family members, because the family got travel letters through social media. Through carefully selected photos from the holiday, they were able to see what we did and how we felt. So what was the point of sending cards? I also received photos from friends and acquaintances, and got to see beautiful views and great destinations. Are paper cards a dying breed? And how environmentally friendly are these paper cards to be produced, sent and transported? What will become of them afterwards? Do people collect them? The beauty of digital stories is that you get memories: You did this on this day 7 years ago. A photo that reminds you that children grow too fast and that you looked younger before. The paper pictures in the basement are just gathering dust. If the house burns down, they disappear. My mobile is filled with pictures from our holiday weeks. From my life. Memories. Many of them completely unnecessary. I have a big cleaning job ahead of me. But is it that dangerous? Yes, it actually is. Our photos, our emails, our searches, our files. It is easy to think that we put something in the cloud and then it is gone. But it’s not gone. It is stored in huge data centers on servers that need energy, that need cooling, that need space. Data centers globally use approximately 1 percent of the world’s electricity, and the IT sector accounts for around 2 percent of global carbon emissions – comparable to the aviation industry. And research shows that this will multiply in the future. On the beach in Porto, the author immortalized this garbage collector on your mobile. Now the digital rubbish must be cleared away. Photo: Hege Svendsen In the book “World Wide Waste – How Digital is Killing Our Planet and What We Can Do About It”, author and professional Gerry McGovern describes that as much as 90 percent of data storage can be considered digital waste. Data we do not need. At a time when the world has a deficit of clean energy, it is stupid that electricity should be used on digital garbage. So although it is nice that we take care of the memories and pictures digitally, it is wise to clean up. When we work on our perfect photos and take 20 photos of the same sunset for the photo to be perfect, it is important to delete the unnecessary photos afterwards. It is difficult to accept climate change and the goals that the world is setting. Fortunately, the tech giants are making moves, but we all have to contribute. It’s hard to see what little me can do when the problem is so big. But one thing is certain. If everyone does a little, we all get more. A place to start is to delete data you don’t need – old e-mails you don’t need and photos on your mobile phone. Because only what you don’t use is environmentally friendly. So it’s a good idea to make room for new data and new memories. How many photos do you have in the cloud? Published 01.08.2024, at 09.56
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The holiday photos devour energy – Expression
