How many trees should I plant to offset my clicks on the internet — Digital Carbon Footprint?
Digital Carbon Footprint / We are going to present other ways to leave a carbon footprint with our most common activities on a daily basis., those different from the use of heating or air conditioning, our consumption of meat or the use of the vehicle. Yes, we are talking about the carbon footprint of our use of the internet and digital platforms, this is where our question arises, how many trees should we plant to compensate for our online activity?
Yes, all the activities that we do in our day to day, whether online or not, generate CO2, yes, Internet data consumption generates a carbon footprint, the Netflix marathons too, as well as the publications on social networks, the sending of emails. In this order of ideas, According to various investigations, it is estimated that by 2030 the ICT industry will consume between 10% and 20% of the world’s energy.
What is the digital carbon footprint?
The digital carbon footprint represents the amount of greenhouse gases generated by the record of our use of technology and Internet browsing. According to a 2017 Greenpeace report, ICT energy consumption is responsible for 8% of global energy expenditure.
Netflix’s Carbon Footprint
The concern about the carbon footprint has reached all companies considering how all their activities leave a footprint with an environmental cost,
Netflix is estimated to generate about 24 billion grams of carbon dioxide per year, just counting visits to your website. In this way, the equivalent in CO2 production of watching a complete series on Netflix is the same as driving from 3 to 970 km in a vehicle, that is, approximately 146 kg of CO2 considering the entire process that is carried out from the Netflix database to the download of data on the internet. On the other hand, 165 million hours of movies are streamed daily, which increases its CO2 generation. In this way, the average carbon footprint of one hour of streaming in Europe it is about 55 grams of CO₂ according to figures from Netflix.
Online browsers and instant messaging applications
Approximately 38 million WhatsApp messages are sent daily and the “search” key is clicked 5,7 million times on Google. This also generates extra carbon consumption considering how all this information is sent by cable, antenna and fiber optics. being also stored in a place which can be reviewed again.
According to information from El País each Google search represents at least an emission of 0,2 grams of carbon dioxide. On the website GO2GLE, there is a real-time counter that indicates the amount of CO2 that the browser has produced from the moment the page is opened until it is closed.
Online shopping
Shopping on the internet and electronic commerce represent great improvements in the comfort of our lives, but if we analyze it well, they also generate their own footprint, in this way, 25 individual purchases on the internet produce more emissions than a visit to any shopping center
Very well-positioned e-commerce brands have various low-cost products, including the convenience of bringing them home, however, we must consider all the CO2 emissions from this merchandise transport.
But what we must take into account when we buy online, the emissions generated by the transport of these goods. They may be cheaper for our finances, however the cost to the Planet ends up being expensive.
Other figures of the digital carbon footprint.
– Sending 65 emails represents the same carbon footprint as driving a car one kilometer, it is estimated that some 280.000 million emails are sent daily.
– According to figures from Facebook, annual carbon emissions per user are around 299 grams of CO2.
– In data from El País each search on Google represents at least an emission of 0,2
– The use of Spotify produces between 200 and 350 thousand tons of greenhouse gases per year, according to the Rolling Stone magazine.
– On the other hand, sources of La VanguardiaThey claim to delete 30 emails permite save up to 222 W.
What is the role of trees in the carbon cycle?
The lands that have been deforested are those with the greatest release of carbon into the atmosphere, highlighting that this is the product of human action on these fields such as failed agricultural practices and soil erosion.
Trees, for their part, are responsible for absorbing carbon emissions by storing them for a long, long time, effectively removing them from the atmosphere..
There are some pages thatmitto calculate online how many trees you need to plant to offset our carbon footprint emissions. The elements to consider in these are the circumference of the tree (size), its life, and the number of trees.
Carbon Footprint Calculator
Here in MiT Software we put at your disposal our carbon footprint calculator so that you can identify your consumption and you can act in favor of compensating it.
MiT Software works on the development of environmentally friendly products capable of reducing the carbon footprint andmitdue to the activities of online users as well as the use of blockchain to tokenize carbon credits in industries with a high generating volume of pollution.
You can calculate how many trees you would need to offset your emissions using this tree calculator. Simply increase the number of trees (or the age and girth of the tree) to see your carbon equivalent.
CALCULATE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT HERE
Finally, you should know that the digital footprint of C2O does not stop growing every day, and currently it is already estimated between 2 and 3% of the total generation., this mainly generated by the data centers, that is, the facilities that house the communication processing and storage devices, without which we could not have any type of digital social life.
Turn off devices just like you turn off the light
Electronic devices such as our cell phones also have their own energy consumption, which although it is true is less than that of a large television or sound system, we must remember that the amount of time they spend on increases their energy requirement capacity is by This is why we invite you to also turn off your connection equipment to reduce its impact and environmental cost.
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