Obviously, the solution here is to ban all streaming porn, and everyone go back to VHS…wait, no, they are made of plastic, which comes from oil. How about DVDs? No, plastic as well. Magazines? Nope, dead trees. Well, we’re just going to have to ban porn except in person to save the Earth from getting a fever
Streaming online pornography produces as much CO2 as Belgium
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.
This means the watching of pornographic videos generates as much CO2 per year as is emitted by countries such as Belgium, Bangladesh and Nigeria.
That’s the conclusion of a French think tank called The Shift Project. Earlier this year, it estimated that digital technologies produce 4 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions and that this figure could soar to 8 per cent by 2025.
The Luddites are on it
Antonio Guillem/Getty – Distracted boyfriend
The move to ever higher quality videos, such as 8K resolution, will contribute to pushing up emissions further. So too could the launch of game streaming services, such as Google’s Stadia, but the report did not try to estimate their impact.
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.
“This once again demonstrates the need for the designers of digital services to think carefully about the overall  impact of the services they provide,†Preist says. “For individuals, upgrading our devices less often, owning less devices, and not demanding mobile high quality internet connection everywhere are probably the most important actions we can take.â€
To limit climate change we need to reduce energy consumption as well as switching to renewable sources, says one of the report’s authors, Maxime Efoui. “Producing new energy infrastructure generates emissions, even if the electricity produced is eventually renewable,†he says.
Who’s going to limit this? The streaming companies? Good luck with that. This is about Government making laws and rules to control things.
Though I’m personally OK with a federal government law stopping autoplay. Fricking annoying. I was amused by the use of the lady from the Distracted Boyfriend meme, though.
