Icons Making CO2

How much unnecessary CO2 do we create?

It is a sad fact that all aspects of life produce CO2. Just being alive generates CO2 which is f course the nasty greenhouse gas. We are becoming fixed on reducing the amount of it we make. From installing energy efficient equipment in our homes to travelling by more economical means. It all helps in the war against carbon dioxide

Yet there are aspects of life which create a lot of carbon. Things we do everyday and somehow manage to justify.

The worst sort are the vicious circles such as going to the gym. People go there to get or stay fit. They run on running machines powered by electricity rather than the runner. This means that the runner is creating CO2 as well as the power station providing the electricity. This also means that the runner will live longer and so produce more and consume CO2 producing electricity.

Some CO2 production is not generally considered at all. For example,  A typical search through google’s website is thought to generate about 7g of carbon dioxide. Boiling a kettle produces about 15g.

This brings us neatly round to the purpose of this post.

Icons on emails.

On the assumption that generating electricity still produces carbon dioxide, then any electrical device is guilty ofthe heinous act of producing CO2.. by proxy.

The thing about data is that it has to be stored. The more data the more storage is required. As you read this, there is a disk drive somewhere holding the data you are reading together with its local copy right in front of you. That disk drive (and yours) require electricity to operate. More data more disks more electricity more CO2.

Data can be represented in many forms from numbers to characters and even pictures and movies. Many emails today have corporate logos and social media logos on them… yes even this site has that annoying popup that you can use to SUBSCRIBE TO THIS POST anytime you like.

The thing is that the data that is used to create those images has to be stored. If you get lots of emails then it will get stored lots of times. 1000 bytes per logo, 1000 emails, 1 Mbyte…. the population of the internet connected world.. say 3.2 billion = 1,000,000 x 3,200,000,000  = 3,200,000,000,000,000 bytes of data or 3,200 1TB disk drives at say 10W each = 32KW energy.

Not entirely sure that this is a good use of electricity and its associated pollution.

Think on people!