If you’ve been feeling guilty about streaming content from home because it’s such a big climate change no-no, take heart. One, it’s nowhere near as damaging as the overwhelming climate sins many business giants are still getting away with. Two, new science says streaming your favourite show costs the world a lot less in energy than it used to.
Streaming uses less energy than it did
With Covid-19 on the move, millions of us are entertaining ourselves at home. It’s good to know that the amount of energy used by Data Centres went up just six percent between 2010 and 2018 thanks to ‘dramatic efficiency improvements’ so effective they’ve almost cancelled out a dramatic eight year, five hundred and fifty percent increase in use.
How will Covid-19 affect worldwide CO2 emmisions?
Despite the good news, it’s all relative. We can’t just assume a constant stream of new tech will keep improving energy efficiency at the same rate in future. The easy wins will eventually dry up, if they haven’t already.
The energy usage and user stats for 2019 could be game-changers all on their own. And Covid-19 is already driving a worldwide boom in locked-down city dwellers binge-watching Netflix like there’s no tomorrow.
On the other hand we’re no longer using energy to drive to work, fly from A to B, and do our jobs in the traditional way. So how does it all stack up?
It’s positive climate news – Just don’t buy all the bog roll
On balance scientists think overall Carbon Dioxide emissions will drop through the Covid-19 crisis. It’ll be fascinating to see what kind of world we emerge into once it’s all over. Until then, don’t buy up all the bog roll. Just don’t. 😉
