225-8 Tips to Reduce Your Environmental Impact While Using the Internet

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast

Episode 225

8 Tips To Reduce Your Environmental Impact While Using the Internet

The internet is truly a powerful tool. We have access to thousands of years of information in a matter of seconds. In combination with digital technology this has literally changed how we live and function. It saves us time, work, money, gasoline, and in many ways reduces our impact on the environment.

While this all sounds wonderful, what most people do not know is that using the internet actually have a significant impact on the environment. However, for the average consumer, this impact is out of sight, out of mind.

If you want to learn more about your personal environmental impact by using the internet and how to reduce that impact, then stick around for E225.

Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E225, 8 Tips To Reduce Your Environmental Impact While Using the Internet

Likely you have heard me say before that everything we do has some sort of an impact. But sometimes that impact is truly not obvious to us at all. For example, the using the internet. What I want to focus on in this episode is the environmental impact of the internet and what we can do as individuals to reduce that impact.

Good News Story of the Week

But before we get started, let’s first talk about the good news story of the week.

As we all know at this point, humanity has had some enormous detrimental impacts on our planet. One of the most concerning is the loss of biodiversity. But this story is about one species that appears to be making a rebound.

The number of monarch butterflies overwintering this year in Mexico has nearly doubled, according to the annual census released last week by the World Wildlife Fund in Mexico and their partners.

The monarch population had reached dangerously low levels and this years survey is an important indicator that this iconic species is on the rebound.

What has helped is less severe drought than in previous years as the concerted effort of governments, landowners, conservationists, and citizens to safeguard critical habitat along the monarch’s North American migratory route. What has also helped is a decrease in forest degradation.

What we can do as individuals to help this species to thrive is to plant milkweed, which is the only plant on which monarchs will lay their eggs. The milkweed then provides an important source of food for the monarch caterpillars. As Spring arrives the butterflies migrate north in search of milkweed to lay their eggs. But they also need nectar plants for food.

So, this is another example of something you can do to turn your yard into a wildlife habitat. You can even use the milkweed map to find a species that will thrive in your area.

So this weeks round of applause goes to the rebound of the monarch butterfly.

So, let’s move on to this week’s episode.

Turning Points in Human History

Believe it or not one of the things that I find interesting is history. I am not a history buff by any means. But whenever I travel I enjoy seeing ancient buildings, art, old churches, old forts to name a few. Most recently I was working out of town and was living temporarily in an old plantation house that was built in 1760. I took the time to research the history of the plantation and even found a guy that searched archives in London for old photographs. I truly found it fascinating to learn a bit of history about the place where I was staying.

Another thing that interests me is some of the major turning points in human history that made significant shifts in societal, technological and cultural developments.

The discovery of fire and the transition from hunting/gathering to farming are among the earliest pivotal moments that transformed human societies. The invention of writing and the wheel, both dating back to at least 5000 BCE, also represent crucial advancements that facilitated communication and transportation.

Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BCE marking the beginning of the civil war that would end the Roman Republic. The signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 is widely regarded as the foundation of the English and U.S. constitutional systems and a cornerstone in the development of democratic principles.

The rapid growth and widespread adoption of television as a dominant medium for entertainment and information, particularly in the mid-20th century. This shift not only transformed how audiences consumed media but also led to significant changes in cultural practices and social interactions.

The advent of the internet and creation of the first website in the late 1960s revolutionized communication and the global sharing of information. This technological leap has had profound impacts on nearly every aspect of modern life, from business and education to social interactions and entertainment. More recently adoption of the widespread use of smartphones has also dramatically altered almost every aspect of our lives.

The birthdate of the internet is consider to be January, 1, 1983 when a specific protocol was developed to allow different kinds of computers in different networks to communicate.

However, the World Wide Web, which significantly expanded public access to the Internet, was released into the public domain on April 30, 1993, making it free for anyone to use. Websites for general public use began to emerge in 1993-1994, spurring the development of browsers and leading to the rapid growth of the Internet's accessibility and use.

These are just a few examples that illustrate pivotal moments in history. While it is interesting to make note of these pivotal moments, at the time it is difficult for anyone to imagine the far-reaching and enduring impacts on human civilization.

The discovery of fire had enormous impacts. It improved our diet, allowed humans to live in colder climates and had a significant impact on human migration. Farming also had tremendous impact. Food production was increased and perhaps for the first time people had more than what they needed and were able to develop some wealth. The wheel completely revolutionized transportation. Advances in technology and the internet has likewise completely changes our society and lifestyles.

While this all sounds fantastic, it is worth pointing out the environment impact of burning fuels as a source of energy. How agricultural practices are by far one of the leading cause of biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. Think of the extensive impact of our modes of transportation. Furthermore, think of the impact of television, social media and the internet in particular. No one could have ever predicted the far-reaching effects of all of these things on civilization and our environment. Although I must say that we have not been entirely ignorant of those possibilities. For example, we have known about the possibility of climate change for over 100 years.

But of all the things we do that would seem completely benign, using the internet is one of them. How can that possibly be detrimental to the environment?

Well, as I pointed out in the previous episode on artificial intelligence, the primary environmental impact of the internet is its significant contribution to global carbon emissions. The internet and its supporting infrastructure account for around 4% of global carbon emissions, which is comparable to the aviation industry.

This substantial environmental impact is largely due to the energy-intensive nature of the internet's infrastructure, including data centers, transmission networks, and the devices we use to access the internet. Data centers, which could be considered the factories of the information age, require a tremendous amount of electricity to operate 24/7, and many of these centers still rely on fossil fuels rather than renewable energy sources.

The use of digital technologies, including online video, social media, and cloud storage, further exacerbates this issue. A perfect example is online video which alone generates 60% of world data flows and results in over 300 million tones of CO2 emissions per year.

The development and use of AI is another prime example.

According to OpenAI researchers, the amount of computing power needed to train cutting-edge AI models has doubled every 3.4 months since 2012. It is anticipated that by 2040 emissions from the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry  as a whole will reach 14% of global emissions.

In June 2019, MIT Technology Review published an article focusing on the carbon footprint of deep learning and comparing that to the oil industry. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, performed a detailed life cycle assessment for training several common large AI models.

What the research revealed is that this whole model training process can emit the equivalent of more than 626,000 pounds of CO2, which is nearly 5 times the lifetime emissions of the average American car including the manufacture of the car itself or the equivalent of 300 round-trip flights between New York and San Francisco.  But it doesn’t stop there.

An AI model is never trained only once. The first round of training is more or less considered baseline function. The fine tuning process is known as neural architecture search, which optimizes a model by incrementally tweaking a neural network’s design through exhaustive trial and error. The fine tweaking requires many more rounds of training and tuning all of which substantially increase the carbon footprint of any one AI model.

As you can see, using the internet, and AI in particular, is by no means benign. But that of course does not even begin to account the all the electronic waste and the mining of rare earth minerals that do into a lot of our devices.

But there are ways in which we can all reduce our environmental impact of using the internet.

Tip #1 Keep your devices as long as possible.

While the environmental impact of the internet itself is significant, the internet would not exist if it were not for all our connected laptops, tablets, mobile phones and other devices. We purchase and discard an enormous number of different tech devices every year. The greenest thing you can ever do is to limit your consumption of these devices. Repair and maintained devices as long as possible. Do you really need to have the latest and greatest?

Electronic waste affects air, soil, and water quality globally. Improper disposal results in the leaching of lead, mercury, and cadmium into the soil. Lack of recycling results in the burning of e-waste, which releases up to 1,000 different chemicals into the air.

I typically keep my electronic devices until the literally die. The last time I had to get a new phone, the young guy at the store asked me “Where did you get this dinosaur?” The greenest thing you can ever do it to keep your electronic devices as long as possible.

Additionally, when you do upgrade your devices, be sure to recycle old electronics responsibly. Donate, sell, or take old devices to certified e-waste recycling programs.

Tip #2 Limit Your Video Streaming

As I stated above online video alone generates 60% of world data flows and results in over 300 million tons of CO2 emissions per year. The reason for this is that the data centers needed for online streaming use a tremendous amount of energy in order support this kind of service.

A couple of solutions to this would be to use video streaming as little as possible, on things that are less important lower the video resolutions, meaning watch videos in standard definition instead of high definition.

Use audio-only modes when possible and download content instead of streaming.

Tip #3 Reduce Your Digital Clutter

Reducing your digital clutter is similar to cleaning house. You get rid of unnecessary items. What this means is to delete emails, files and unnecessary apps in order to lower the energy demand of data storage.

You can also avoid forwarding unnecessary emails and unsubscribe from newsletters that you no longer read. Avoid forwarding large files, use hyperlinks to the needed information instead. This practice also reduces environmental load and improves operational efficiency and reduces server storage costs.

Tip #4 Purchase energy efficient devices

Choose products with energy efficiency ratings and certifications such as Energy Star. Choose energy efficient routers that have power saving modes. Energy Star rated devices typically use significantly less energy.

Tip #5 Keep devices turned off

Most of our household devices these days are digital. Washers, dryers, microwaves, refrigerators, internet routers, as well as many other things. This means they all consume a certain amount of energy 24/7 because they are always in “ready mode.” This is referred to as phantom loads.

Do we really need to have our devices in constant ready  mode. Well, not really. Simply keep things turned off, even the WiFi. 

Back when I still lived in a house that was fully connected to the grid, I still kept things turned off including the internet router. Whenever I turned it on it only took maybe two minutes for it to set up. When I was finished, I turned it off. The same is true for our internet router at the homestead. We have satellite internet. When I turn on the router, it only takes 2 to 3 minutes for it to set up and find a signal.

Tip #6 Use local storage instead of cloud storage whenever possible.

When constant, up-to-the minutes access is not needed, store files on external drives rather than using cloud services.

As you can likely image, over 200 episodes into this podcast, I have an enormous amount of data that needs to be stored as backup. I store all of this information on external hard drives instead of relying on cloud services. The information is always there and easily retrievable whenever I need it.

Tip #7 Used wired connections whenever possible

Ethernet connections are much more energy efficient relative to WiFi.

Tip #8 Reduce your screen time.

It is amazing to me how much time people waste with constantly while subjecting themselves to constant notifications and updates and with mindless browsing and social media scrolling. Ninety percent of this is completely unnecessary. The average screen time globally is over 6 hours per day.

Your time would be better spent learning how to lead a more sustainable lifestyle, going outside and getting some exercise, planting a garden, or just reading a good book. There is so much more to the world and we are missing out because we sit in front of a screen for hours every single day.

As my mother used to say to use when we were kids and out of school for the summer, “Go outside.”

Summary

As you can see from this episode there are numerous examples throughout human history when one thing has changed the course of humanity. The advent of the internet is just one of those things. Now these advances for human civilization are not bad things. New discoveries and advances in technology tends to improve our standard of living or helps to build a more stable society and economy. However, humanity has a long history of not making responsible choices. Therein lies the problem.

As you have likely heard me say before, everything we do has some sort of impact. But it is amazing to me how most people never think about the long-term implications of even the simplest things we do everyday. For example, you throw away a plastic bottle. Now that seems pretty benign. But when that sort of thing happens 1.5 billion times a day, you can start to appreciate the impact.

Similarly, most of us use the internet multiple times a day and we see no harm in that. Yet this is another example of how everything we do has an impact. Truly, there is nothing wrong with the majority of things we have to do to make our lives function. It’s all about making responsible choices. The challenge is that making responsible decisions is not an innate skill. However, it can be developed through education and practice, by evaluating situations, considering multiple perspectives, and weighing the pros and cons of our choices.

And then there’s me, with episode after episode always telling everyone we need to change our way of living to something that is more sustainable.  In the end, I hope at least I am providing some level of education and making you doubt how and why you live the way you do and encouraging you to also make a difference. 

Well folks, that is about it for this week. I hope you will join me again next week for another episode. Until then, always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future.