The Shift Project has released a report pointing the finger at online video as a significant, and growing, cause of greenhouse gas emissions.
From New Scientist:
The transmission and viewing of online videos generates 300 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, or nearly 1 per cent of global emissions. On-demand video services such as Netflix account for a third of this, with online pornographic videos generating another third.
[...] The authors call for measures to limit the emissions from online videos, such as preventing them from autoplaying and not transmitting videos in high definition when it is unnecessary. For instance, some devices can now display higher resolutions than people can perceive. The report says regulation will be necessary.
No word on the carbon footprints of HTTPS, JavaScript, or advertising.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by darkfeline on Sunday July 14 2019, @08:43PM (1 child)
I agree with the high resolution part though.
Video is extremely expensive data-wise, and high resolution video is quadratically more expensive. But higher resolution video does not produce quadratically more entertainment value.
1080 is more than sufficient. We don't need this 5K, 8K bullshit.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday July 15 2019, @04:09AM
Hear hear!
640k480p ought to be enough for anybody [quoteinvestigator.com]