Factoid

 1,000 grams - of CARBON DIOXIDE is emitted in an hour during a video call meeting, claims a new study. Switching off your camera during a web call can reduce a person's carbon footprints by 96 per cent, it adds. In other words, it can save up to three gallons of water and an area of land about the size of an iPad Mini. According to researchers, streaming content in standard definition rather than in high definition, while using apps, such as Netflix or Hulu, could also bring an 86 per cent reduction. Reducing data download will also lessen the demand of water and land. The study is believed to be the first to analyse water and land use associated with the internet infrastructure.

For the study, the team estimated the carbon, water and land footprints associated with each gigabyte of data used in YouTube, Zoom, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and 12 other platforms, as well as in online gaming and miscellaneous web surfing. As expected, the researchers found that the more a video is used in an application, the larger are the footprints

Did You Know

  • According to environmentalists, though an ongoing pandemic has seen a noticeable drop in global carbon emissions, because of closing factories and limited traffic, there has been an increase in athome entertainment and remote working, which has a significant environmental impact, depending on how the internet data is stored and transferred around the world.
  • Moreover, researchers found that OTT platforms like Netflix is one of the biggest contributors to the carbon footprints, using about 11 square inches of land and two gallons of water per hour and generating more than 440 grams of CO2.
  • It was followed in descending order by Zoom, TikTok, Whats App and Facebook

Alert!

  1. In some countries, the internet use has spiked at least 20 per cent since the lockdowns started in March. If that level of demand continues through 2021, it will require a forest twice the size of Indiana in the US, to offset the carbon emissions, warn experts.
  2. Besides, if increased usage continues, the additional water needed to process and transmit data could fill more than 300,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, and the land required would be equivalent to the size of Los Angeles, the study added.

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