The Guardian recently explored the surprising carbon emissions of everyday digital tasks, such as emails and video calls, highlighting how our seemingly harmless online activities add up to a sizable environmental impact. While tech giants invest in vast data centres to keep up with our growing digital demands, people are being encouraged to consider a “data diet” to help reduce their personal carbon footprint. For an average person, daily online activities come with surprising carbon costs.
Simply sending an email generates around 17g of CO2 emissions. The Guardian’s reporter found that even receiving a detailed email from their editor and spending three minutes reading it added 17g of CO2 to their carbon tally. For context, while one email might seem insignificant, the emissions grow rapidly with each click and swipe.
Most Read on Euro Weekly News Streaming is even more energy-intensive, with Netflix estimating that HD video streaming uses about 3GB of data per hour, generating 36g of CO2 per hour – equivalent to boiling a kettle. WhatsApp group chats generate 2.35kg of CO2 each week, and video calls consume up to 15MB per minute, adding to the ongoing emissions.
Vast data centres globally house everything, processing and storing data around the clock. Companies including Amazon, Google and Microsoft have invested billions into data centre expansion, with Amazon alone spending £8 billion (€9.5 billion) in the UK over the next five years.
However, awareness is gro.
