meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
City Journal Audio

The Digital Economy's Voracious Energy Demand

City Journal Audio

Manhattan Institute

Politics, News Commentary, News

4.8615 Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2020

⏱️ 17 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mark Mills joins Brian Anderson to discuss the enormous energy demands of the world's modern information infrastructure—"the Cloud"—the subject of his new book, Digital Cathedrals.

"Tech companies confront an inconvenient fact," writes Mills. "The global cloud uses more energy than is produced by all the planet's wind and solar farms combined." In fact, digital traffic has become the fastest-growing source of energy use. While nearly every tech company has pledged to transition to renewable energy sources, most data centers are physically connected to the conventional power grid, fueled by hydrocarbons. The modern economy won't be exclusively powered by renewables any time soon.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast. I'm Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal. Coming up on the show today,

0:06.0

I'll be joined by a frequent City Journal contributor, the futurist Mark Mills, to discuss his new book,

0:11.5

Digital Cathedrals. It's an important contribution about the incredible energy demands of our modern

0:17.5

digital infrastructure, the massive warehouse-sized data centers built over the last

0:22.4

few decades, that has allowed billions of people to access the global cloud of information

0:27.9

and online services like streaming videos. It's published by Encounter Books. There's a link to it

0:34.2

in the podcast description, and you can find it on Amazon.

0:47.0

Before we get started with the interview, I want to note that this week marks the fourth anniversary of launching the 10 Blocks podcast, which just keeps on growing.

0:53.6

Thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in, and we hope you'll tell your friends to subscribe to the podcast,

0:57.6

and maybe get them a copy of City Journal magazine while you're at it.

1:19.2

My conversation with Mark Mills begins after this. Hello again, everyone. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal.

1:24.6

Joining me in the studio today is Mark Mills. Mark is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute,

1:28.8

writes regularly for City Journal, and he's a partner in an energy tech venture fund. He's had a long career analyzing the energy economy in government and the

1:33.6

private sector, and we're happy to have him on the podcast. Mark has an interesting pithy new book

1:39.6

published by encounter called Digital Cathedrals. We'll link to it in the description, and you can find it on

1:45.6

Amazon or wherever books are sold. Steve Forbes calls it a mini-sized book that packs a mega-sized

1:52.4

wallop of information about the digital age. Mark, thanks for joining us. Great to be here, Brian.

1:58.7

Your book has a striking title. I just mentioned it, Digital

2:02.2

Cathedrals. What you're really talking about is data centers, the physical infrastructure

2:07.4

that allows us to shop online, to stream videos, everything else digital. But that term,

2:14.0

digital cathedral, can you explain what that means to you?

2:18.3

Well, as a sort of an amateur student of the history of technology, one era of history

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Manhattan Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Manhattan Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.