By reading this, you contributed to climate change!

Work emails from one sender always comes with this signature line: "Save a tree, don't print me."

Yep, the words are in green to convey the point in case it was not otherwise clear.

It sounds wonderful, doesn't it.

And then there is the reality: "our collective internet traffic contributes enormously to climate change."  Of course, this is not the first time I am blogging about our digital consumption and climate change.  We simply don't often think of our cyber-interactions as contributing to climate change.   For whatever reasons, it is beyond our imagination.

How huge is our collective impact?

Digital technologies have even surpassed the aerospace industry in terms of carbon emissions. While aviation's share of global CO2 emissions is estimated to be around 2.5%, and rising, nearly 4% of all CO2 emissions can now be attributed to global data transfer and the necessary infrastructure

More than aviation!

The largest share of that growth is now video traffic: 80% of all data transferred online is video data, with nearly 60% of that being online video, meaning streaming videos stored on a server and viewed remotely, via sites like Netflix, YouTube or Vimeo.

Raise your hands if you are willing to give up using Netflix, YouTube, ...

I am sure it is only a matter of time before somebody comes up with Netflix-shaming, similar to "flight-shame"

[Greta] Thunberg is the most celebrated of a small but expanding tribe of environmentalists who eschew air travel: “non-flyers,” as some of them call themselves. Non-flyers are not typically afraid of flying—at least not in the usual sense. They do not fear that a plane will malfunction but that it will function exactly as intended. If Thunberg had flown from London to New York and back, her share of the flight’s CO2 emissions would have amounted to roughly a ton: more than the average annual per capita emissions in fifty-six of the world’s countries

So, does it mean that we need to give up flying?  And give up our digital devices and the internet?  No more Googling?

I was reminded of a New Yorker cartoon from a few years ago in which two cave men talk about the clean air that they have.  I googled for it (ha!):

Source

Here's what I practice, and suggest:
1. Moderation (or, if you prefer, reducetarianism).
2. Vote.