According to experts, the ease of streaming services comes with a massive environmental cost and watching a half-hour show would lead to emissions of 1.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent, reports Hindustan Times.
Maxime Efoui-Hess of French thinktank the Shift Project said, “That’s equivalent to driving 6.28km.”
Last year, online video streaming produced emissions equivalent to what Spain produces in a year and that amount is likely to double in the next six years, according to the Shift Project.
Most online traffic comes (34 per cent) comes from streaming videos, on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, but the next biggest sector is online porn.
Gary Cook of Greenpeace said, “Digital videos come in very large file sizes and (are) getting bigger with each new generation of higher definition video.”
Cook told Agence France Presse, “More data equals more energy needed to maintain a system that is ready to stream this video to your device at a moment’s notice.”
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