Netflix's dark secret: How watching your favorite shows threatens the planet
You are probably unaware that while watching your favorite show on Netflix or listening to music on YouTube, you are participating in the pollution of the planet. Namely, all these streaming platforms require electricity which, in most cases, is produced by emitting carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide emissions produced by watching the top 10 Netflix series are equivalent to those emitted by a car on long drives.
„Strange, environmental impact is a relatively new issue for the streaming industry,“ says Dom Robinson, founder of Greening of Streaming, a newly formed body aiming to address the sector's energy impact.
Netflix has estimated that one hour of streaming by a single user on the platform produces „well below“ 100 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent. Specifically, the Carbon Trust says that the European average is 55 to 56 grams of carbon for every hour of video streaming. That is equivalent to driving a car for about 300 meters.
This platform recently provided insight into the total number of hours viewed for its major hits. It revealed that the 10 most popular works were watched for more than six billion hours.
This is equal to about a billion kilometers, which is the distance between the Earth and Saturn.
Regarding YouTube, a report by researchers at the University of Bristol based on estimates of the streaming site's usage in 2016 calculated that watching videos on the streaming site produces more than 11 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. Given that YouTube had 1.4 billion users that year and now has more than 2.4 billion, it certainly emits a significantly larger amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon-based components.
Earlier this year, Netflix announced that it aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2022.
Robinson says that such strategies must include a major reduction in emissions, and not just investment in green projects, if they are to achieve carbon neutrality.
The growth of internet traffic has been enormous in recent years, with as much as 80 percent of data capacity being occupied by streaming platforms like Netflix, YouTube, and Facebook.
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SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN PHOTO: UNSPLASH
