Big Data, Big Waste? A Reflection on the Environmental Sustainability of Big Data Initiatives
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This paper addresses a problem that has so far been neglected by scholars investigating the ethics of Big Data and policy makers: that is the ethical implications of Big Data initiatives’ environmental impact. Building on literature in environmental studies, cultural studies and Science and Technology Studies, the article draws attention to the physical presence of data, the material configuration of digital service, and the space occupied by data. It then explains how this material and situated character of data raises questions concerning the ethics of the increasingly fashionable Big Data discourses. It argues that attention should be paid to (1) the vocabulary currently used when discussing the governance of data initiatives; (2) the internal tension between current data initiatives and environmental policies; (3) issues of fair distribution. The article explains how taking into account these aspects would allow for a more responsible behaviour in the context of data storage and production.
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In a world prone to climate crisis, the environmental impact of AI might well constrain its deployment, at least if sustainability becomes a serious parameter in economic activity.
“Similarly, in a world prone to climate crisis, the environmental impact of AI (Corbett 2018;Dhar 2020;Lucivero 2020;Strubell et al. 2020; van Wynsberghe 2021) might well constrain its deployment, at least if sustainability becomes a serious parameter in economic activity (Nishant et al. 2020 for a contrary optimistic view).”
From Artificial intelligence and work: a critical review of recent research from the social sciences (2024) · cites this paper as Lucivero 2020
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- Authors
- Lucivero, F.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Lucivero, Federica
- ORCID
- Lucivero, Federica
- Venue
- Science and Engineering Ethics
- Published
- 2019-12-23
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 1009-1030
- ISSN
- 1353-3452 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-5546
- PMC
- PMC7089892
- OpenAlex
- W2998403260
- Cited by
- 136
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 4
- FWCI
- 19.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Science and Engineering Ethics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (203132/Z/16/Z)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Green IT and Sustainability
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Big Data Technologies and Applications
- Keywords
- big data, environmental sustainability, data ethics, digital services, data storage, data governance, environmental policy, fair distribution, responsible data practices
- MeSH terms
- Big Data, Technology
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