Data storage does not consumes energy. Read and write data does. Deleting data initate database queries and other CPU activities. This request will more likely cause a spike in energy. It won't save any energy in any case.
this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2025
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It sort of does. Each drive uses energy, simply by being on (spinning rust moreso than flash). As storage demands increase, data centers will just keep adding disk shelfs and more drives, which use more energy. So at home, data storage is effectively "free" since you need at least one drive running anyway. In data centers, there is a calculable energy cost per GB.
Data centers run regular backups. The more data they store the more energy it takes to maintain it.
Data centers are almost certainly going to be using partial/diff backups. Changes are what incur most cost.
This is plastic straws all over again:
As some onlookers have noted, the recommendation rings a little hollow when juxtaposed next to the UK government's commitment to turbocharge growth using AI. Perhaps more pertinently, the advice rings hollow because it's likely not very sensible. While it's true that data centers do consume large amounts of water through evaporative cooling (where it's used), the vast majority of this power draw comes from CPU and GPU computation, not the storage of pictures and emails. Once the data is stored, the storage devices generate very little heat and are often spun down (placed into low- or no-power states) and called upon only when needed.
The impact of an individual deleting emails and old photos on data center water usage is likely to be so infinitesimal as to be considered futile. In fact, rooting out old emails and photos and deleting them from your online archives might well use more energy and water than storing them in the first place, making this a counterproductive exercise.
Corporations are the real problem, but they bribe the government into doing something that won't help but will make some people against the entire cause and will reflexively start saying there is no problem and nothing should be fixed.
They need to be called out repeatedly and loudly before that mentality sets in again.
"Save a plastic tree"
For decades the public has been gaslit into taking responsibility for the pollution that largely exists so that the rich can pinch a few extra pennies per dollar.
They ban plastic straws but the vast majority of ocean microplastics come from clothes washing machines.
Lmao whoever wrote this directive should not be allowed within a country mile of any computer, anywhere
100% some dipshit got AI to write this after pissing of their intern one too many times.
Or maybe stop "AI" from sucking down gobs of power for no good reason other than to steal content and waste websites' bandwidth that specifically say not to crawl them.
Yep we should all go back to paper.
They are telling people to delete emails, which will use more power, and worsen the drought. Fucking idiots.