Moving ICT to the clouds Molly Webb on the carbon impact of data centres and whether companies should switch to cloud computing

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Seven million iPads were sold in 2010, expected to triple by 2012. Five billion people have mobile phones. Internet traffic is expected to be at 91% this decade.
What then is the carbon impact of this activity, all the phones being replaced each year, the networks that drive them, base stations every few kilometers, all requiring 24-hour power. What about the power we need to run global finance, our governments, transport systems or business applications and email?