It’s easy to think about digital stuff: photos, videos, websites, e-books, messaging apps and back-ups like they are weightless and ethereal – especially when that’s how they are advertised with product names that use nature-related or diminutive words like streaming, the cloud, Mini²⁵³, Nano²⁵⁴, and Air²⁵⁵. In reality, the systems behind them are heavy, noisy, and consume a great deal of energy and water. Global emissions from cloud computing alone are now higher than those of commercial flights²⁵⁶.

But while many people are connected to the latest technology and high-speed internet, a third of the world’s population is still not connected.²⁵⁷ The material infrastructure of technology is deeply entangled with historical and ongoing structures of colonialism, capitalism, and global inequity. The statistics reflect a disparity between high- and low-income countries, with 93% of individuals with internet access versus 27%, respectively.²⁵⁸ Submarine cables have been laid almost exactly over historic transatlantic slavery routes and over the copper telegraph network essential to the British empire in the 1800s.²⁵⁹ The global internet is dependent on these cables, which are owned and controlled by tech giants and corporations – mostly those who are headquartered in the United States and Europe. The owners of these cables dictate the flow of data, pricing, and access – reinforcing economic dominance and control maintained after centuries of exploitation.

With the development and proliferation of AI, understanding infrastructures that are essential for the internet and technology is more important than ever. It is hypothesized that by 2030 the air pollution from AI, in particular from data centers, could result in a public health burden that is double that of the US steelmaking industry.²⁶⁰ When people use the internet they are making use of a massive physical infrastructure of underground cables, radio towers, ports, underwater sea cables, and servers. These systems are what make it possible to use artificial intelligence, stream videos and games, and connect to 5G.

Data centers store much of our data, as well as process it and connect it between servers or devices. Everytime you check your email, go on Instagram, or fill up a virtual shopping cart, you’re being shown information that is stored on a server in a data center. These are necessary physical structures that are vital for communication, work, entertainment, and so much more. The internet relies on the over 8,000 data centers around the world²⁶¹ which virtually process, sort, store, and ship data in the blink of an eye.

Data centers are giant concrete warehouse-like buildings filled with servers that process and store the internet’s data, but produce a large amount of heat in the process. Air conditioners are on around the clock and chilled water passed through pipes are necessary to avoid centers setting on fire. Cooling accounts for over 40% of the electricity used in data centers²⁶². A single data center uses several million gallons of water per day.²⁶³ In Oregon, one local newspaper went to court in order to access information revealing that a Google data center used over a quarter of the water in one riverfront town²⁶⁴. One particular data center in Utah, part of the US’s National Security Agency (NSA), uses seven million gallons of water per day²⁶⁵ – revealing the environmental cost of surveillance. Data centers also drain electricity from the local towns, often vulnerable communities such as on Navajo land, and affecting Black Americans; According to the Washington Post, “Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest utility provider, estimates 55 percent of its future electricity needs will be caused by data centers, according to planning documents reviewed by The Post.”²⁶⁶ Since servers and cooling machines are working around the clock, they also produce constant noise pollution, which can be harmful to the emotional and physical health of workers and inhabitants living nearby.²⁶⁷ Near one data center, residents complained about the constant, inescapable noise, describing it as “sounding like a propeller, a ‘loud drone hovering above 24/7,’ a ‘big fan,’ a construction site, a ‘low-frequency sound,’ an airplane engine, a helicopter, a freight train, a leaf blower, and a lawn mower.”²⁶⁸

A lesser known fact is that data centers are made to be hyper-redundant. That means that to meet the demand for the cloud and data being available any time of the day (i.e. online banking or businesses relying on their websites being operational to meet the demands); various back-up systems need to be running and ready to take over at any moment. Energy is also consumed in this process. “In some cases, only 6 to 12 percent of energy consumed is devoted to active computational processes,” according to an article in Scientific American. “The remainder is allocated to cooling and maintaining chains upon chains of redundant fail-safes to prevent costly downtime.”²⁶⁹ This means that only a small fraction of energy used by data centers is actually for processing data. Most of it is used to cool and maintain back-ups of back-ups to make sure that if one computer fails, another is ready to take its place.

Ever wondered how your instant messages arrive so instantly? There are around 1.4 million kilometers²⁷⁰ of cables laying on the ocean floor transmitting data from one continent to another. For the most part, the cables are as wide as a garden hose. Inside, the strings that carry fibre optic signals are as thin as human hairs. These strings are wrapped with layers of protection to make them waterproof and to protect them from things like shark bites, natural disasters, and boat anchors. Today, there are over 600 active and planned cables that transmit more than 95% of the world’s data.²⁷¹ Almost every country that has a coastline is connected to multiple cables to ensure reliable connection. Most of the cables are concentrated at the coastlines of populated countries, but there are fewer connections for people living in remote places. Undersea cables are vulnerable to natural disasters, human accidents, and intentional tampering – the repair of one cable is estimated to cost $2 million USD.²⁷²

Cables used to be owned by telecommunications companies that formed consortia of parties interested in using the cable. In the 1990s, an influx of entrepreneurial companies built private cables and sold them off to users. Both of these models still exist and operate today. However, more recently, the biggest change is that Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon are building their own cables. As of 2019, these four companies owned or leased more than half of the Internet’s underwater bandwidth²⁷³.

Not all bandwidth is divided equally; in one study, researchers found that while the U.S. was using 4,960,388 Mbps of international bandwidth, India (which is four times more populous) only used a fraction of it – 4,977 Mbps – that same year.²⁷⁴ Surveillance is also a major factor in undersea cable interest, such as monitoring by the US National Security Agency (NSA)²⁷⁵ and the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)²⁷⁶. According to the 2019 Mozilla Internet Health Report: “[T]he corporate and political powers that influence and control the infrastructure can have significant global social and security implications. In this context, physical ownership of undersea infrastructure to mitigate the risk of surveillance is emerging as an investment motivation.”²⁷⁷

The physical infrastructures that support the internet aren’t just present on land. When gazing at the stars, you might notice bright dots of light moving steadily through the sky. These are most likely satellites. Satellite dishes, installed to the exterior of homes, receive signals from satellites in space connecting Wi-Fi routers to the internet. As of January 2025, there are nearly 7,000 Starlink internet satellites in orbit²⁷⁸. In addition, prototype satellites from Project Kuiper, a new initiative from Amazon, have also been launched to space, with more than 3,000 satellites planned.²⁷⁹ The current lifespan of satellites of this kind is five years, at which point, they are deorbited, causing them to burn up when entering Earth’s atmosphere. Experts fear this could trigger unpredictable changes to our climate systems.²⁸⁰ SpaceX already has plans to launch more than 40,000 Starlink satellites²⁸¹. Although the odds of getting hit by space debris on Earth is very low²⁸², when it happens, it can be dangerous – as one home-owner in Florida experienced when a two-pound space junk object smashed through his roof and put another hole in the floor²⁸³. Over 25,000 pieces of trackable human-made junk larger than 10 centimeters orbit the Earth, and with each passing year, that number increases²⁸⁴.

The goal of many of these satellites is to provide internet to people living in areas with low connectivity. But who is benefitting? In one case in the north of Brazil, Starlink satellites are used in the Amazon region by remote Indigenous communities and research centers, as well as by illegal mining groups, showing that there are two sides of the coin when it comes to connections for endangered areas like these²⁸⁵. There's a debate on how overdependence on Musk's technology will have political implications in Brazil and could make mineral-rich centers more vulnerable, with one local expert stating: “A company like Starlink might right now know more about the Amazon and the occupation of the Amazon by human activity than the Brazilian government actually does.”²⁸⁶

To omit the political nature of connectivity would be neglectful. Internet access is so critical and central to the functionality of essential services that it is considered a lifeline.²⁸⁷ Access Now’s campaign #KeepItOn documents internet shutdowns around the world²⁸⁸ and has found a prevalence of internet shutdowns before, during, and after elections in several countries: “Election-related internet shutdowns empower incumbent regimes to control information flows and silence opposing voices and narratives.”²⁸⁹ Connection is also central to modern warfare. Starlink has been involved in controversies with limiting access to Ukraine as they fight Russia’s invasion.^290,291 “There is little precedent for a civilian’s becoming the arbiter of a war between nations in such a granular way,” according to an article in The New Yorker, “or for the degree of dependency that the U.S. now has on Musk in a variety of fields, from the future of energy and transportation to the exploration of space.”²⁹² This kind of power extends beyond virtual and becomes material and geo-political, in line with competition and control. China’s Digital Silk Road is a clear example of this type of opportunistic influence. “This Silk Road is not merely about laying fibre-optic cables or launching satellites. Ultimately, the Digital Silk Road is poised to generate infrastructural dependency,” as CCCB Lab found. “Chinese firms [...] export a model of digital development that fuses market expansion with state control, embedding a distinct political economy of the internet into the data centres, cloud infrastructures and e-commerce platforms of the Global South.”²⁹³ Undeniably, individuals and societies in the Global Majority will reap benefits from becoming more connected, however the question of “At what cost or consequence?” remains.²⁹⁴

When the technological tools created are weapons of destruction – such as those employed by Israel in Gaza – the environmental footprint becomes exponentially multiplied. “[T]he climate cost of the first 60 days of Israel’s military response [in Gaza] was equivalent to burning at least 150,000 tonnes of coal.”²⁹⁵ The United Nations Environment Programme’s December 2024 assessment of Israel’s war on Gaza stated that “debris generated by the current conflict is 17 times more than the combined sum of all debris generated by other conflicts since 2008.”²⁹⁶ Humans have shaped our environment from below our oceans’ floor to high in the sky. Submarine cables, data centers, and satellites are just a few examples of the material infrastructures powering the internet, and we’ve only just scratched the surface. The fantasy of technology being flawless, optimized, and perpetual is actually a myth that’s upheld by an apparatus that guzzles natural resources regardless of the consequences.

²⁵³Apple Press Info. “Apple Introduces iPod Mini.” 2004.

²⁵⁴ Apple Press Info. “Apple Introduces iPod Nano.” 2005.

²⁵⁵ Apple News Room. “Apple introduces the 15‑inch MacBook Air.” 2023.

²⁵⁶ Lavi, Hessam. “Measuring greenhouse gas emissions in data centres: the environmental impact of cloud computing.” climatiq, 2023.

²⁵⁷ Filipenco, Danlil. “Internet access and digital divide: global statistics.” DevelopmentAid, 2024.

²⁵⁸ Filipenco, Danlil. “Internet access and digital divide: global statistics.” DevelopmentAid, 2024.

²⁵⁹ Auerbach Jahajeeah, Jess. “Undersea cables for Africa’s internet retrace history and leave digital gaps as they connect continents.” The Conversation, 2024.

²⁶⁰ Upton-Clarke, Eve. “Air pollution from AI could surpass that of all the cars in California.” Fast Company, 2024.

²⁶¹ International Energy Agency. “Electricity 2024: Analysis and forecast to 2026.” 2024.

²⁶² Monserrate, Steven Gonzalez. “The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloud.” Scientific American, 2022.

²⁶³ Zhang, Mary. “Data Center Water Usage: A Comprehensive Guide.” Dgtl Infra, 2024.

²⁶⁴ Rogoway, Mike. “Google’s water use is soaring in The Dalles, records show, with two more data centers to come.” The Oregonian, 2023.

²⁶⁵ Monserrate, Steven Gonzalez. “The Cloud Is Material: On the Environmental Impacts of Computation and Data Storage.” MIT Schwarzmann College of Computing, 2022.

²⁶⁶ Verma, Pranshu. “Amid Arizona’s data center boom, many Native Americans live without power.” The Washington Post, 2024.

²⁶⁷ Richardson, Kelly. “Understanding the impact of data center noise pollution.” TechTarget, 2024.

²⁶⁸ Chan, Rosalie. “Virginia's 'Data Center Alley' residents say an eerie hum is keeping them up at night.” Business Insider, 2023.

²⁶⁹ Monserrate, Steven Gonzalez. “The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloud.” Scientific American, 2022.

²⁷⁰ Gray, Alex. “How the Internet travels under the sea in super-fast cables.” World Economic Forum, 2017.

²⁷¹ TeleGeography. “Submarine Cable Frequently Asked Questions.” 2024.

²⁷² Munga, Jane. “Beneath the Waves: Addressing Vulnerabilities in Africa’s Undersea Digital Infrastructure.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2025.

²⁷³ Satariano, Adam. “How the Internet Travels Across Oceans.” The New York Times, 2019.

²⁷⁴ Cooper, Tyler. “Google and other tech giants are quietly buying up the most important part of the internet.” Venture Beat, 2019.

²⁷⁵ Timberg, Craig. “NSA slide shows surveillance of undersea cables.” The Washington Post, 2013.

²⁷⁶ Amnesty International and Privacy International. “Two Years After Snowden.” 2015.

²⁷⁷ The Internet Health Report. “The new investors in underwater sea cables.” Mozilla, 2019.

²⁷⁸ Pultarova, Tereza; et al. “Starlink satellites: Facts, tracking and impact on astronomy.” Space, 2025.

²⁷⁹ Pequeño IV, Antonio. “Amazon Launches Internet Satellite Prototypes—Looks To Compete With Starlink.” Forbes, 2023.

²⁸⁰ Clery, Daniel. “Burned-up satellites are polluting the atmosphere.” Science.org, 2024.

²⁸¹ Haworth, Tom. “SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink Mission Finally Launches After Failed Attempts.” Newsweek, 2024.

²⁸² Wei-Haas, Maya. “Space junk is a huge problem—and it’s only getting bigger.” National Geographic, 2019.

²⁸³ David, Leonard. “Space-Junk Strike in Florida Signals New Era of Orbital Debris.” Scientific American, 2024.

²⁸⁴ Jah, Moriba. “Why We Need to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle in Space.” Scientific American, 2025.

²⁸⁵ Maisonnave, Fabiano. “Musk brought internet to Brazil’s Amazon. Criminals love it.” AP News, 2023.

²⁸⁶ Phillips, Tom; et al. “‘Can’t live without it’: alarm at Musk’s Starlink dominance in Brazil’s Amazon.” The Guardian, 2024.

²⁸⁷ Hankey, Stephanie; et al. “Smartphone as Lifeline: Designing technology for a changing world.” Tactical Tech, 2020.

²⁸⁸ Access Now. “#KeepItOn: fighting internet shutdowns around the world.” Accessed March 24, 2025.

²⁸⁹ Access Now. “2025 elections and internet shutdowns watch.” Accessed March 24, 2025.

²⁹⁰ Sabbagh, Dan. “Fury in Ukraine as Elon Musk’s SpaceX limits Starlink use for drones.” The Guardian, 2022.

²⁹¹ Roulette, Joey. “SpaceX curbed Ukraine's use of Starlink internet for drones -company president.” Reuters, 2023.

²⁹² Farrow, Ronan. “Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule.” The New Yorker, 2023.

²⁹³ Delclós, Carlos. “Countering Digital Colonialism.” CCCB LAB, 2025.

²⁹⁴ Kurlantzick, Joshua; et al. “Assessing China's Digital Silk Road Initiative.” Council on Foreign Relations, 2020.

²⁹⁵ Lakhani, Nina. “Emissions from Israel’s war in Gaza have ‘immense’ effect on climate catastrophe.” The Guardian, 2024.

²⁹⁶ United Nations Environment Programme. “Gaza Strip - Preliminary Debris Quantification: Damage Assessment Analysis: 1 December 2024.”