Ethics
Utilitarianism
From a utilitarian standpoint, the good of the many outweighs the good of the few. With this philosophy, we consider this issue of data centers and their environmental impact.
Quality of Life:
Many people consider their nearly unlimited access to virtual storage and applications to be extremely important to their quality of life. In today's society, lack of access to these amenities would actually prevent people from performing tasks they need to do for work or school. There are millions of users of cloud based functions, including 95% of Americans.
Those living near data centers, however, have experienced in general a decline in quality of life due to their proximity to such a large power consumer. Though data centers do create a few jobs, particularly during the construction period, afterwards they create few benefits for the community.
Overall the quality of life of the majority would outweigh the difficulties that are incurred by those few living near data centers, which are generally located away from areas with high population density.
Environmental Impact:
According to numerous studies, the energy consumed by businesses who maintain small individual server rooms and data centers is greater than it would be if these entities outsourced their IT needs to a large data center. In this respect the global environment would benefit from increased consolidation of small storage centers into large data warehouses because it would result in a net decrease in carbon emissions.
However, the local environment around the data center would experience concentrated levels of carbon emissions and high energy usage, resulting in potential damages to the regional environments and ecosystems.
The benefits to the global environment outweigh the costs to the local environment, making data centers acceptable from a utilitarian perspective.
From a utilitarian standpoint, the good of the many outweighs the good of the few. With this philosophy, we consider this issue of data centers and their environmental impact.
Quality of Life:
Many people consider their nearly unlimited access to virtual storage and applications to be extremely important to their quality of life. In today's society, lack of access to these amenities would actually prevent people from performing tasks they need to do for work or school. There are millions of users of cloud based functions, including 95% of Americans.
Those living near data centers, however, have experienced in general a decline in quality of life due to their proximity to such a large power consumer. Though data centers do create a few jobs, particularly during the construction period, afterwards they create few benefits for the community.
Overall the quality of life of the majority would outweigh the difficulties that are incurred by those few living near data centers, which are generally located away from areas with high population density.
Environmental Impact:
According to numerous studies, the energy consumed by businesses who maintain small individual server rooms and data centers is greater than it would be if these entities outsourced their IT needs to a large data center. In this respect the global environment would benefit from increased consolidation of small storage centers into large data warehouses because it would result in a net decrease in carbon emissions.
However, the local environment around the data center would experience concentrated levels of carbon emissions and high energy usage, resulting in potential damages to the regional environments and ecosystems.
The benefits to the global environment outweigh the costs to the local environment, making data centers acceptable from a utilitarian perspective.
Deontology
From a deontological perspective, actions should be taken with an intent of goodwill in order for them to be morally correct.
Townspeople could argue that the lack of environmental conscientiousness displayed by data centers reflects a lack of goodwill towards the area's citizens. The data center founder focuses primarily on profits for the company and the actions surrounding the construction and maintenance of the data centers are taken for the wrong reasons: for profit rather than because they are morally correct.
However, it could also be argued that, given the current state of affairs where most people in developed countries require access to cloud based storage and applications in order to function well in society, it is the responsibility of these companies to provide that amenity to the public. Denying this service would cause known hardship for the general populace and would negatively impact nearly all sectors of the economy.
Though these services do not seem like a necessity of life, society has evolved in such a way that what should be conveniences have become staples. Therefore, the greater moral duty is to society as a whole over the group who is affected in a more direct but ultimately less impactful way.
From a deontological perspective, actions should be taken with an intent of goodwill in order for them to be morally correct.
Townspeople could argue that the lack of environmental conscientiousness displayed by data centers reflects a lack of goodwill towards the area's citizens. The data center founder focuses primarily on profits for the company and the actions surrounding the construction and maintenance of the data centers are taken for the wrong reasons: for profit rather than because they are morally correct.
However, it could also be argued that, given the current state of affairs where most people in developed countries require access to cloud based storage and applications in order to function well in society, it is the responsibility of these companies to provide that amenity to the public. Denying this service would cause known hardship for the general populace and would negatively impact nearly all sectors of the economy.
Though these services do not seem like a necessity of life, society has evolved in such a way that what should be conveniences have become staples. Therefore, the greater moral duty is to society as a whole over the group who is affected in a more direct but ultimately less impactful way.