Branch is an online magazine written by and for people who dream of a sustainable and just internet for all. It’s published by Green Web Foundation in collaboration with members of the CAT community.
We’re delighted that issue 5 has recently come out.
What’s covered in issue 5?
Issue 5 is a collaboration with the Critical Carbon Computing Collective and explores a paradigm called carbon computing. Carbon computing describes the massive enterprise of using computers to manage the climate system – from measuring individual impacts to adjudicating global climate politics. It is an increasingly core, if under-recognized, feature of climate management and governance.
The issue consists of five articles. The first gives an overview of the concepts of carbon computing.
The other four articles are guides, designed to break down and demystify common terms, practices, and debates at the intersection of climate and ICT. The guides cover:
- Carbon Accounting – outlines how the tech sector contributes to (and reinforces) specific ways of monitoring and governing climate actors. Read carbon accounting guide.
- Policy and Tech – discusses how states, corporations, and workers are setting standards, rules, and expectations around climate tech. Read policy and tech guide.
- Computing Net Zero – unpacks the power of language in carbon computing. Read computing net zero guide.
- Labor – emphasizes the roles of organized labor and environmental justice coalitions in advocating for and creating more sustainable computing practices. Read labor guide.
Posters of each article are available as well, so you can print and distribute this well-researched work wherever conversations about the material realities of computing are happening.
Those involved
A big congratulations for an amazing set of articles to all involved, many of whom you can find in our CAT Slack community.
Guest editors: Theodora Dryer and Tamara Kneese
Anne Pasek, Cindy Lin, Andrew Meade McGee, Anubha Singh, Johannah Rodgers, Megan Wiessner, Janna Frenzel, and Benjamin Peters.
More about Branch
Branch has been in publication since 2020 and each issue is jam packed with personal reflection, critical engagement with technology and internet economics, as well as experimentation and storytelling. Creating change requires all kinds of practices—art and design, professional development, civic participation, policy and advocacy, imagination and positive visions for our future. Branch is our small attempt at sharing what inspires and challenges us towards a sustainable and just internet for all.
Branch is designed to be ‘Demand Responsive’ to adapt to and reflect the physical infrastructure of the internet and the energy behind it. Utilising data from a grid intensity API, Branch has different interface designs that are shown dependent on the current energy demand and fossil fuels on the grid.
