It is not a secret that the Internet has become an integral part of our lives. It’s been estimated to consume 20% of all global electricity. That energy expenditure is projected to double or triple by 2025 as more people take advantage of broadband access.
It’s hard for some people to understand just how much impact our daily internet activities have on the environment. Most devices are designed with short battery life, so there isn’t much need for power conservation.
Impact of The Internet on Environment
There is an ongoing debate as to whether the internet has a negative or positive impact on our environment. On the one hand, some argue that it helps reduce in-person meetings and paper consumption since people can get more information online. Others claim data centers are still energy-intensive even if they’re not printing out sheets of documents anymore.
The environmental effects of the internet have been up for discussion for years with no definite answer yet. Regardless of how you feel about this issue, we all need to do something that will help solve this problem. For example, recycling your cell phone batteries instead of throwing them away. This will keep dangerous metals like lead from seeping into groundwater supplies where children swim or play games.
Keep Your Devices For a Longer Period
Every year we buy and discard a huge number of different technology devices to connect to the Internet. The most environmentally friendly gesture you can put into practice to reduce your digital footprint is to limit this consumption. By limiting consumption, it maximizes the life of your device and allows you to use it for a long time.
Therefore, you must take care of them and avoid any damage that may happen. For example, instead of replacing your laptop after a year or two, you can halve the impact if you can keep it for long. The same is true for mobiles, internet boxes, and other devices.
Which Device is More Eco-Friendly?
When you factor in the cost of a laptop, it’s easy to see that its environmental impact is not as bad. A typical usage for laptops is 8 hours per day which equals 44-88 kg CO2 emissions yearly.
The negative effect on the environment from using this device happens when we consider:
- How much energy is consumed by a computer annually
- What resources go into making a computer
However, with so many options out there like Chromebooks or iPads (other Apple devices), these two devices have a minimal carbon footprint.
Modern smartphones contain almost 63% of the elements in the periodic table. There are 17 types of rare-earth metals and 16 types used to create an average smartphone. Unfortunately, the hidden reality of mobile phone production uses unsustainable methods that result in pollution, human rights abuses, and threats to ecosystems. Well, there is one crucial reason, smartphone production has the greatest environmental impact. Greenpeace estimates that approximately 70-80% of carbon dioxide emissions occur during the manufacturing process.
Optimize Your Emails
Monitor the weight of your emails to reduce their size and help with storage. When possible, send a hyperlink rather than an attachment that will take up space on someone’s computer or phone. Unsubscribe from newsletters you don’t read to save time wading through them. Finally, remember not to forward chain mail, petitions. Only sign in as yourself once if it sounds like something interesting.
Stop Streaming TV
Video streaming is one of the most data-hungry and energy-intensive that can be run on the Web. For example, one episode download of Blue Planet in HD is about 1 GB. And the UK’s electricity emits about 1.4 kg of CO2. So, ironically, watching programs about our natural environment can harm the environment. This means that individuals like me don’t even have to download or stream it individually.
Final Thoughts
The internet has a significant impact on the environment. But, with these tips, you can make your digital footprint lighter and help reduce the environmental effects of using technology. But as we continue adopting new technologies which require constant connectivity, the environmental impact will only worsen unless we make efforts to reduce it.