6 hours of streaming Netflix may be the equivalent of burning 1L of petrol
1 min read
Photo credit: Mollie Sivaram / Unsplash. Article by Michael Fuhrer and Errol Hunt.
Coronavirus lockdowns have led to a massive reduction in global emissions, but there’s one area where energy usage is up – way up – during the pandemic: internet traffic.
Data-intensive video streaming, gaming, and live streaming for business, university, and school classes is chewing up energy.
Estimates can be notoriously difficult and depend on the electricity source, but six hours of streaming video may be the equivalent of burning one litre of petrol, due to emissions from the electricity used to power the data centres which deliver the video.
In fact, the energy associated with the global IT sector – from powering internet servers to charging smartphones – is estimated to have the same carbon footprint as the aviation industry’s fuel emissions (before planes were grounded). […]
