The Internet: The world’s 4th-largest polluter
If the internet were a country, it would be the fourth-largest polluter in the world, Euronews writes.
The internet is responsible for 3.7 per cent of global carbon emissions, outpacing air travel.
It’s why scientists have created an innovative tool to shed light on how our internet activity is impacting nature.
Developed by climate experts at the University of Exeter in partnership with Madeby.studio, Digital Impact for Species is able to analyse any website and reveal its hidden environmental costs beyond the standard metrics of CO2 emissions, water and energy consumption.
“When we visit a website, we rarely think about the environmental impact,” says project lead Dr Marcos Oliveira Jr of Exeter’s nature and climate impact team.
“But there is a high cost, from the energy consumed as the information makes its way from the data centre to your computer or smartphone, to the water used to cool servers.”
Electricity is needed to send the information from the data center (where the website is stored) to your computer or phone. Water is used to cool the servers that keep the website running.
To calculate the impact of any website you visit, all you have to do is paste the URL into the tool’s search bar. It will then present an overall rating from A+ to F, along with how much the search is impacting nature.
For example, YouTube.com, which processes billions of searches every month, is ranked C – meaning improvements could be made in its environmental impact. Each page view of this popular site generates 0.249g of CO2, uses 0.0011 litres of water, and 0.62Wh of energy.
For every 9,000 monthly visits, 10 litres of water is needed – enough for a capuchin monkey to survive for 77 days.
9,000 monthly visits also uses 6kWH of energy, equivalent to 1,000 anna’s hummingbirds’ daily energy use for 332 days.
“This is not about naming and shaming websites with high environmental footprint, but engaging people and prompting discussion as to how we might build a more sustainable internet,” Dr Oliveira Jr adds.
