Skip to main content
Is the digital economy is at odds with the green economy?
Don’t be fooled – ‘doing more things online’ has not offset the negative environmental impact of ‘buying more things online.’ In fact, the situation is getting rapidly worse, warns JULIAN VIGO
No techno fix: the ecological repercussions of new online products and consumer markets are downplayed by industry

IN 2019 Raynold Wonder Alorse published “The digital economy’s environmental footprint is threatening the planet” relaying information from his working paper, The Digital Economy and the Green Economy: Compatible Agendas? 

Alorse’s work is far from hyperbole as he points to what many ecologists have been saying for years: that there are critical blind spots in the desire to believe that the digital economy is compatible with a green economy. If anything, they are antagonistic to each other.

Not only do our smartphones rely on metals that exploit both the planet and child labourers in various countries, but cloud computing, data centres, cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence are largely powered by electricity sourced from coal. 

Alorse contends that “the digital economy and green economy will be incompatible with each other and could lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, accelerate climate change and pose great threats to humanity,” a claim that many scientists have already proven.

Donate to the Fighting Fund
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Nicaragua's ambassador Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez gives a st
Features / 6 May 2024
6 May 2024
As independent media exposes Establishment media lies about Israel’s genocide in Gaza, claims of anti-semitism are being exposed as a tactic to silence critics, argues JULIAN VIGO
President Joe Biden is joined on stage by first lady Jill Bi
Opinion / 25 January 2024
25 January 2024
The continued hawkishness of Biden’s party is putting it increasingly at odds with its own natural constituency, argues JULIAN VIGO
Features / 14 April 2023
14 April 2023
The ‘Twitter files’ demonstrate McCarthyism v 2.0, argues JULIAN VIGO
Features / 29 November 2022
29 November 2022
Changed financial conditions are having an impact in Britain and the United States, writes JULIAN VIGO
Similar stories
THE WAY FORWARD: A general view of the Viking windfarm SSE R
Features / 17 January 2025
17 January 2025
Thanks to impressive progress in Britain with wind and solar generation, clean electricity now costs a fraction of the price of gas — yet the current system keeps bills artificially high to protect fossil fuels, writes TOM HARDY
Taklimakan desert workers
Features / 28 December 2024
28 December 2024
Chinese socialist planning and action over decades have created the world’s greatest reforestation programme, writes CARLOS MARTINEZ, and now its lessons in fighting desertification and climate change are taking root worldwide
Shadow Energy Secretary Ed Miliband on board the jack-up bar
Features / 10 October 2024
10 October 2024
The government’s reliance on unproven and short-termist technology won’t deliver answers to today’s energy crisis, warns MARK MASLIN
Full Marx / 26 August 2024
26 August 2024
The ‘degrowth’ debate raises critical issues to which only a Marxist approach can provide answers, argues the Marx Memorial Library