COVID-19 has forced us to work from home and brought unexpected environmental benefits. But energy consumption from increased internet use threatens to offset this green blessing.
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How big is this increase? Enough that the extra carbon generated would require a forest twice the size of Portugal to capture the resulting CO2. The land and water footprints are also huge, and this is just for wired internet. But is there anything we can do to stop this trend?
“We found that turning off video during Skype or Zoom calls is very effective,” lead researcher Renee Obringer told Lifewire via email, “especially if people are working remotely and spending a lot of time online.”
According to a new study led by Obringer, the amount of water and land needed to power the data centers that power our internet is staggering, as is our carbon footprint. So big, in fact, that it’s easier to understand smaller, but equally shocking, numbers.
