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Guardian
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Concerned about your data use? Here is the carbon footprint of an average day of emails, WhatsApps and more
- We have an insatiable appetite for data, we can’t stop generating it, and, just like oil, it’s turning out to be bad news for the environment.
- An email generates 17g of CO2 emissions, according to estimates by a professor at Lancaster University’s Environment Centre.
- The vast transfer of data through the internet from one place to another, brokered through datacentres, involves a lot of energy and water to keep all those servers cool.
- Big tech companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft are building datacentres around the world to meet increasing demand for data.
- All our online activity generates 8.62kg of CO2 on average each week, according to Zero Waste Scotland.
- Watching an hour of Netflix was equivalent to boiling a kettle once: about 36g of CO2.
- The average WhatsApp group chat uses 2.35kg of CO2 a week, while streaming music for five hours emits 288g of CO2.
- Big tech companies buy carbon credits and offsets to try to mitigate their impact on the environment.
- The tech industry’s embrace of generative AI has complicated matters and it is an area where there are no published numbers.
- People are urged to practice “digital sobriety”, being mindful about how they use AI and other digital tools.
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