You cannot turn the TV onto the news these days, open a newspaper or look at the website of your preferred news source without hearing something about our damage to the planet. In the past couple of decades, an emphasis has been placed on the importance of a) understanding our carbon footprint better and working on ways to reduce it.
Now it’s likely that you know, as do most people, that if you have an old boiler that was made before a certain time or has just suffered from wear and tear over its lifetime and is no longer working properly. It’s time to replace it, with a more environmentally friendly and efficient gas combi boiler (for example).
It’s also likely, given the connection to the increase in demand on the electricity supply in our homes and workplaces, that you understand the connection between using a computer all time or making lots of phone calls. However, did you know there could be other ways you are generating and increasing your carbon footprint through some of the less tangible things you do while using the internet?
Viessmann have put the interesting and startling video above together that outlines the damage you could be doing to the planet when carrying innocuous tasks online such as viewing YouTube videos, searching Google, posting tweets and hours and hours of constant Netflix viewing. All of that, pales in comparison though, to the amount of coal burned to send 60 seconds of the world’s emails.
So, while you are thinking of ways to reduce your utility bills and recycle more to lower your carbon footprint, it may be time to look to your digital carbon footprint too and how you can reduce that. #TheCoalTruth