Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen people talk about “the cloud”, it sounds weightless, something almost magical floating in the sky. Except that it isn’t. It lives on the ground, in data centres filled with servers that store, process and move staggering amounts of information every second. These data centres consume energy, occupy land, use metals and minerals from global supply chains – and they need vast amounts of water for cooling.
Going local in a global crisis
Reading Time: 4 minutesGoing local in a global crisis – COVID-19 has unleashed the worst jobs crisis in a generation. The latest figures from the OECD’s Economic Outlook are striking. Compared to the last quarter of 2019, hours worked fell over 15% in the Euro Area, the United Kingdom and Canada in the second quarter of 2020, and by over 10% in the US.
