Environmental Impact and Digital Preservation; Memory Rising
Full details
| Authors & editors | |
| Publisher | Digital Preservation Coalition |
| Year of publication | 2024 April |
| Languages | |
| Medium | Digital |
| Edition | 1 |
| Topics | Arts, culture and heritage > Digital conservation and communication |
| Tags | |
| Scope & content | DPC Technology Watch Guidance Note April 2024 Introduction Digital preservation infrastructure relies on often invisible and enormously complex energy systems. The daily work of digital preservation practitioners, who work with myriad files, hardware, software, servers, and storage environments, is dependent on cheap and abundant energy. Historically, this energy has been generated from fossil fuels, which underpinned the Industrial Revolution and still power most of the world’s infrastructure. Fossil fuels include coal, oil, and gas. The transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is critical for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Even though renewable energy sources are quickly coming online, the majority of energy used to generate electricity in OECD countries still comes from non-renewable resources. As of June 2023, renewables only counted for 33.5% of net production of electricity in OECD countries (Monthly Electricity Statistics, 2023). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated that in order for warming to be limited to less than 2° C, all scenarios must “involve rapid and deep and, in most cases, immediate greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all sectors this decade”(Lee et al., 2023). Digital preservation aims to preserve materials for the future when that very future is uncertain due to the disruptions of climate change. Many of the sectors that employ digital preservation practitioners such as archives, libraries, museums, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations have demonstrated an uneven record of addressing climate change. Integrating climate change into our work is a critical component of digital preservation theory and practice. Organizations that have adopted a climate action plan (a plan dedicated to identifying steps to mitigate carbon emissions and integrate climate adaptation measures) should consider how digital |
| Web URL | http://doi.org/10.7207/twgn24-01 |
Divisions within this publication
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Measuring the Environmental Impact of Digital Preservation
- 3: Implicit Assumptions of Digital Preservation
- 4: Affordable energy and equipment costs
- 5: Electric grid stability
- 6: Adequate staffing
- 7: Organizational continuity
- 8: Growth and permanence
- 9: The Importance of Selection
- 10: References