Alan Pears would like you to know that your Zoom meeting is not, in fact, going to destroy the planet. All the CO2 that’s already in the atmosphere, however...
I get a bit tired of repeated, breathless articles “exposing” how almost every action that helps our transformation towards a low-carbon, advanced global economy is actually a problem. Nothing is perfect, but a lot of changes are positive—if they are well-managed.
For example, I often hear expressions of concern about the carbon (and broader) environmental impacts of digitalisation. The International Energy Agency has looked at this issue and found that, overall, the net benefits of digitalisation (through energy savings and productivity improvements) usually far outweigh the impacts.
The graph here provides insights into the worst-case environmental impacts of some internet apps, but it doesn’t put them into context. For example, an hour spent on Zoom generates less CO2 than driving a car a kilometre. Avoiding a five-kilometre car trip cuts emissions by more than a two-hour, “worst case” Netflix video.
