Digital Carbon Footprint: Why Should We Know More and Why is it Important?

The world population is largely aware of the concept of a carbon footprint; digital carbon footprint however, is a term yet to enter the public domain. The energy consumption involved in the process of transmission of data via the internet contributing to almost 4% of our greenhouse gas emissions, almost equal to the emissions of the entire aviation industry. This process requires millions of physical servers in data centers around the world, all taking a lot of energy to run which comes from power sources that emit carbon dioxide into the air.

In just a minute, 150,000,000 emails are being sent, releasing a staggering 600,000 kg of carbon dioxide. However, using a search engine or sending text-only emails has a negligible impact. The lion’s share of the digital footprint is caused by video streaming due to large data sizes of videos.

Owing to the pandemic, the internet habits of the world changed drastically. Streaming devices and OTT platforms became the new rage and the newest onset of Zoom, Google Meet and Teams became the staple digital diet for every demographic. The digital carbon footprint of the world increased more than ever, and the stakes are higher, since the world doesn’t have time to deal with more severe consequences of climate change alongside a global pandemic.

Companies like Google have begun to call data a ‘cloud ‘to make information about data emissions and other terms more accessible to the laymen. Now the data isn’t weightless but is fit in the minds of people as some materialistic concept. Every activity creates releases a certain amount of carbon dioxide which is a greenhouse gas. It might be a very minuscule amount if seen individually but almost 53.6% of the world uses the internet, imagine everyone sending a mail per minute, to say the least. Now imagine the carbon dioxide release. Since these clouds use servers to keep up and going, the more mails we store, receive and send, the more is the carbon footprint.

The recent surge in the usage of Zoom and Google Meet is another reason the situation is grave. While we may have assumed the climate costs of staying home are very minimal and good for the environment, the copious amount of time we have sent on Zoom for a work meeting and Netflix to relax ourselves has only created more emissions sitting at home.

While we can necessarily cut of all contact with the digital world, one can clean their inbox more, use search engines that run on renewable energy sources such as Ecosia and add extensions to their internet browsers to keep their activity in check in terms of the energy it emits, maintaining data privacy of course.

Knowing more about the digital carbon footprint especially in today’s time is crucial, with work from home now being the new normal.