A gripping new investigation into the underbelly of digital technology,which reveals not only how costly the virtual world is, but how damaging it isto the environment.Asimple 'like' sent from our smartphones mobilises will soon constitute thelargest infrastructure built by man. This small notification, crossing theseven operating layers of the Internet, travels around the world, usingsubmarine cables, telephone antennas, and data centres, going as far as theArctic Circle.Itturns out that the 'dematerialised' digital world, essential forcommunicating, working, and consuming, is much more tangible than we wouldlike to believe. Today, it absorbs 10 per cent of the world's electricity andrepresents nearly 4 per cent of the planet's carbon dioxide emissions. We arestruggling to understand these impacts, as they are obscured to us in themirage of 'the cloud'. Translated by Bianca Jacobsohn

A gripping new investigation into the underbelly of digital technology,which reveals not only how costly the virtual world is, but how damaging it isto the environment.Asimple 'like' sent from our smartphones mobilises will soon constitute thelargest infrastructure built by man. This small notification, crossing theseven operating layers of the Internet, travels around the world, usingsubmarine cables, telephone antennas, and data centres, going as far as theArctic Circle.Itturns out that the 'dematerialised' digital world, essential forcommunicating, working, and consuming, is much more tangible than we wouldlike to believe. Today, it absorbs 10 per cent of the world's electricity andrepresents nearly 4 per cent of the planet's carbon dioxide emissions. We arestruggling to understand these impacts, as they are obscured to us in themirage of 'the cloud'. Translated by Bianca Jacobsohn

A gripping new investigation into the underbelly of digital technology,which reveals not only how costly the virtual world is, but how damaging it isto the environment.Asimple 'like' sent from our smartphones mobilises will soon constitute thelargest infrastructure built by man. This small notification, crossing theseven operating layers of the Internet, travels around the world, usingsubmarine cables, telephone antennas, and data centres, going as far as theArctic Circle.Itturns out that the 'dematerialised' digital world, essential forcommunicating, working, and consuming, is much more tangible than we wouldlike to believe. Today, it absorbs 10 per cent of the world's electricity andrepresents nearly 4 per cent of the planet's carbon dioxide emissions. We arestruggling to understand these impacts, as they are obscured to us in themirage of 'the cloud'. Translated by Bianca Jacobsohn