James Glanz NYTimes articles attacking the data center industry made quite the rounds in the data center community.
THE CLOUD FACTORIES
Power, Pollution and the Internet
Ethan Pines for The New York TimesData centers are filled with servers, which are like bulked-up desktop computers, minus screens and keyboards, that contain chips to process data.
It's been months waiting for the series to continue. But, guess what the NYtimes has dismantled its environmental reporting group.
The New York Times’s decision is to dismantle its four-year-old environment “pod” has been called everything from “an unmitigated disaster” to potentially “a good thing.”
In fact, a lot remains to be seen. InsideClimate News reporter Katherine Bagley broke the story on Friday and quoted Times managing editor Dean Baquet insisting that the change is structural and that the paper remains as committed to environmental coverage as ever. But he and other top editors haven’t provided many details about what that means.
Over the next few weeks, the environment pod’s two editors and seven reporters will be reassigned to other desks, including, presumably, Science, National, Business, and Foreign, but word in the newsroom is that few, if any, people know where they’re headed. It’s also unclear what will happen to the Green blog, though Baquet has said, “If it has impact and audience it will survive.”
Will someone else carry the torch to attack the evil data centers who pollute the world?