What is Your Digital Environmental Footprint?
by Sasha Krieger
As an environmentally conscious citizen, I make choices to recycle and consume less because I care about the future of the planet. In an effort to combat global warming I vote for certain candidates, limit my driving, and use reusable coffee cups and bags. While environmental awareness and activism is a priority for many students, it is usually directed at that which we can see. As our digital lives and real world are intricately intertwined, is it time that we start considering the impact of our digital identities on the natural world?
While our digital ecosystem seems invisible, digital infrastructures and devices are not immaterial. As Ron Deibert explains in his 2020 Massy Lecture series, Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society, “for much of our day to day lives we are presented with a kind of technological mirage. Our consumption of social media (and the communications ecosystem as a whole that support them) generates a kind of hidden tax on the natural environment that we don’t feel, see, smell, or touch.” Online media is stored in data centers and transferred to terminals using networks, all of which require electricity, consume resources and involve CO2 emissions.
The carbon emissions associated with streaming media are particularly alarming. According to the Shift Project, the transmitting and viewing of online video accounts for nearly one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon footprint of the internet is growing, and it is estimated by 2040 Information Computer Technology (ICT) systems will be responsible for 14 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions. This increase can be explained by what is known as the Jeeveson effect, as resources become more efficient, consumption of them increases.
As more people around the world become connected to the internet, our appetite for data is increasing. As students we spend countless hours online, often streaming media on our devices. Whether binging Netflix to relax, watching video lectures, or streaming films through the Library, digital media is a major part of our personal and academic lives. Statements like “Netflix and chill” and “binge watch” have entered popular vernacular and it is easy to mindlessly consume media with little awareness that each click consumes resources and drives up emissions.
The precise environmental impact of streaming media is difficult to calculate because it involves a variety of systems and infrastructures. While network services are increasingly efficient, video streaming produces different levels of greenhouse gas emissions depending on energy sources, technology, and behaviour. Simon Fraser University Professor Laura Marks offers several solutions for mitigating your carbon footprint. These include:
- Streaming less
- Watching videos at a low resolution
- Using physical media like DVDs whenever possible
- Going to the movie theatre
- Lobbying our governments to require that internet service providers build carbon taxes into their business model
- Paying carbon offsets for streaming, as we do for air travel
- Resisting the urge to upgrade your old devices
While changes in individual behaviour can help reduce the environmental impact of streaming media, collective awareness and action is necessary. We can work together to help spread awareness of the environmental impact of streaming media. While it is not realistic to abandon digital pursuits, we can shift how we interact with the digital world. As Ursula Le Guin wrote in her 2017 essay, Deep in Admiration, “to use the world well, to be able to stop wasting it and our time in it, we need to relearn our being in it”. By considering the materiality of digital media we can begin to move towards more sustainable habits and work together to build a greener community.
Were you previously aware of the environmental impact of your digital identity? What actions do you plan to take to reduce your digital carbon footprint?
Written by Sasha Krieger
Edited by Rachael Bradshaw
Featured image BalticServers Data Center from WikiMedia Commons used under CC BY-SA 3.0
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