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Ronise Nepomuceno

FROM PAPER TO PIXELS: THE HIDDEN ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS OF THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

The digital revolution was supposed to make the economy cleaner and lighter. Instead, many environmental costs were displaced rather than eliminated. From forests and paper mills to data centres, Ronise Nepomuceno examines the hidden physical footprint of the digital economy.

FROM PAPER TO PIXELS: THE HIDDEN ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS OF THE DIGITAL ECONOMY
Clear-cut area in Karela, Russia. The timber was being transported to Finland for the production of paper. The photograph was taken in 1997. Photograph: @Dylan Garcia /Alamy

By Ronise Nepomuceno

When the web first emerged, paper production and its disposal were amongst the most visible environmental concerns. This impact was particularly evident in the old-growth forests of the Northern Hemisphere. Back in the 1990s, in Canada, environmental campaigners warned that vast areas were being clear-cut for paper production. The pulp and paper industry was then one of the largest sources of water pollution.

In 1999, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) warned in its Living Planet Report that half of the world’s original forest cover had already been lost, as a result of industrial logging for paper. Pulp and paper demand was a main pressure on global forests, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

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