The Internet’s energy needs, the devices and systems that use it, and the servers that maintain it are responsible for greenhouse gas emissions equal to those of global airlines. This carbon cost is increasing rapidly with the growth of blockchain-enabled transactions: A single Ethereum transaction has a carbon footprint of nearly 329,000 credit card transactions.

Researchers developed the Solar Protocol project from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. It aims to highlight how transglobal data trafficking through the Internet is a major source of energy and a driver of climate change, as well as to suggest a solution.

The Mozilla Creative Media Award was presented to the project by Mozilla. This award supports internet health and encourages open-source technology development in areas such as online privacy, inclusion, and decentralization. Mozilla awards the award to projects and people who show how to reimagine information in a way that shifts power away from big tech platforms to individuals and communities.

Solar Protocol is a web platform developed by Tega Brain (NYU Tandon Professors in Technology Culture and Society), Benedetta Piantella (a Center for Urban Science and Progress; and Adjunct Professor Alex Nathanson). It’s hosted on a network of solar-powered servers located around the globe. It is a viable system that can be used to build new servers. Additionally, it provides a global platform that highlights the politics of the Internet and allows for different methods to track web traffic.

Solar Protocol uses the sun’s interaction with Earth as its cornerstone, in stark contrast to other large-scale, high-volume web services that automatically direct network traffic to the server with the fastest response time. The “logic” behind automating decisions in the digital network is how the sun influences daily behaviour, seasonal activities, and the decision-making process of nearly all life forms.

Solar Protocol offers us, artists, a unique opportunity to address the issues of climate change and how technology is driving it. Brain said. The project has sparked conversations about AI/automation, as in-network user traffic is determined by solar energy. Therefore, we are using natural, dynamic intelligence rather than a data-driven machine learning model; it’s an alternative proposition. Consider planetary limits of intelligence. They will determine the future of human life on Earth, whether or not we like it.”

The network considers that the servers powered by photovoltaic cells are in different time zones and seasons. It directs internet traffic to where the sun shines. A browser requests the Solar Protocol website. It is sent to the server that is producing the most energy.

This is not an alternative to the Internet. The goal is not to scale it. Patella said that the system is being published as an open standard. This means anyone could theoretically launch a similar network, such as a network of art museums.

Brain noted that the project also addressed the language of the Internet and how it is used in terms that seem to have little to do with our actual environment.

“We refer to the Internet as the cloud and use magic language to describe it. This makes no reference to its resource-intensive nature,” she stated. People who become server stewards are more in touch with the material realities of the Internet and the steps required to create a server powered entirely by the sun. You make different design decisions, consider the planetary limits, and rethink the politics behind the Internet.

Kofi Yeboah (Mozilla Creative Media Awards Program Officer) said, “In today’s connected world, discussions about power, inclusion and exclusion and ownership often boil down to data. The impact of data collection, management, and training of AI systems can profoundly affect billions of people’s lives. However, this impact is often hidden. Solar Protocol and Creative Media Awards make the invisible visible. They show how data can impact everything, from the environment to safety. The Creative Media Awards offer a way forward by modelling how data can be better managed to empower individuals and communities.