Watching videos on the Internet also harms the environment

Surprisingly, even the videos we watch on the Internet have an impact on the environment. A new report indicates that the internet is one of the top "villains" in the digital sector's carbon footprint, which now accounts for 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This share could double by 2025, leaving the digital sector on a par with road transport, as energy consumption in this sector is increasing at the rate of 9% per year.

Published by the French research website The Shift Project, the report "Climate Crisis: The Unsustainable Use of Online Video" quantifies the impact of Internet video (VoD, "tubes", pornography, social networks and others) on the environment and the global climate.

The study shows that, within all Internet data, online videos account for about 60 percent of the stream, or the largest volume of greenhouse gas emissions in the industry, with about 300 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). Of this total emission, 34% are Video on Demand (VoD) and 27% pornographic video.

In the case of streaming, the videos are stored in data centers and transferred to equipment (computers, smartphones, digital televisions, etc.) in an electrically powered process - which usually generates greenhouse gases in its production.

"More than 80% of Internet traffic today is related to entertainment or advertising," says Hugues Ferreboeuf, manager of The Shift Project, "in the face of the climate emergency we are experiencing, this data should convince us that questioning our digital behavior is not only desirable, but feasible.

As a way to help people control their own use of the Internet, The Shift Project has launched Carbonalyser, a browser extension that lets users know about electricity consumption and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with Internet use. The extension is available for the Firefox browser.

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