The NY Times recently reported on the tendency of countries to redirect internet traffic away from the United States. Intelligence agencies have previously been gifted with the convenience of a large majority of international internet usage eventually finding its way through US cables. This trend has been reversing in the last 5-8 years, as the US falls woefully behind up-to-date submarine cable updates, and as increased intraregional networks offer an ability to keep terabytes more local.

[As submarine cables hit land, the optical signal is converted in a landing station into a terrestrial system.]

Several regions have witnessed dramatic shifts in internet use that has put considerable economic pressure (and opportunism) on expansion. Latin America, Asia, and Africa have reduced their rerouting dependence on the US to 70%, 55%, and 5% respectively.

[Intraregional networks in Asia. Asia has 501 million of the 1.3 billion internet users and it is growing by 882% per year.]

Probably most significant in that map is what is referred to as the SEA-ME-WE 4 (South East Asia, Middle East, Western Europe 4) cable route which is funneled through the Mediterranean, Suez, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean. It creates a intraregional link from Marseilles to Singapore. January 30, 2008 saw the severing of the SEA-ME-WE 4 and FLAG network, providing an opportune moment to upgrade the network.

[The SEA-ME-ME 4 cable route is the backbone of Europe and Asia internet connections.]

[Hot-wiring the seabed.]

What appears initially as (invisible) lines on a global map suddenly can be read as the very modern day gates and thresholds that assert the power, economic vitality, cultural credentials driving competitive urbanism. Villages such as Tarifa, Spain, strategically positioned as a constricted data threshold between the Atlantic and Mediterranean hubs, become a key information harbor at the scale of the data intraregion.

[The continuous interior of data centers is a palace to the monolithic slabs of data storage.]

In an increasingly ubi-comp environment, massive data centers processing or storing data continue to sprout up in contexts and sites of economic and geographic convenience. In a post-Silicone-valley glow, many sites are happy to promote their contexts as ideal for these data centers. Iceland promotes itself as just such a site.

[Brochure pitching Iceland as the ideal environment for massive data centers.]

With clean water, stable power and cool air as an ideal location, Iceland is lobbying for the search engines and IT firms to come into the cold. The most alluring project within this agenda is Data Islandia. Data Islandia is a storage company based in Iceland that has tabled a green data center (link via Drunken Data) in the town of Sandgerdi in southwest Iceland. The facility will be built near a former US Naval Air Station, and will use natural wind cooling to reduce energy usage. And I am sure that abundant geothermal is figuring into the convenience to boot. The landform references Icelandic turf farms and makes extensive use of the landscape.

[The rolling hills of a proposed server farm in Iceland from Data Islandia designed by architect Robert Örn Arnarson.]

The Sandgerdi data centre will have a moss roof. Putting plants on the roof doesn't just drop a building into the landscape, it can absorb excess water, protect the materials of the roof from the sun, and increase the diversity of flora and fauna. The 4,000 m2 digital data archive is designed by Danish architect Robert Örn Arnarson.

[IBM\'s Project Big Green.]

IBM’s Project Big Green is another green data center proposal responding to the economic (and environmental) inefficiency. Today, roughly 50 cents is spent on energy for every dollar of computer hardware. And this is only expected to increase.

[Strangely religious overtones from the imagery package for IBM\'s Project Green.]

Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Last year, Britain both imported 14,000 tonnes of waffles, and exported 15,000 tonnes. In the United States, FreshDirect proclaims kiwi season has expanded to “All year!” now that Italy has become the world’s leading supplier of New Zealand’s national fruit, taking over in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter.

The global movement of food has never operated at the speeds and scopes seen today. Labour costs, economics, and infrastructure have a greater influence over what is farmed and where it is distributed than climate.

[Alabama catfish farms.]

Recently Catfish farming in the Mississippi delta are about to go bellyup. With rising costs of corn and soybeans, for every dollar it costs to raise and harvest a catfish, there is only 75 cents return. Drained catfish ponds are being converted into, you guessed it, corn and soybean fields.

(via nytimes)