How Much Energy Does the Internet Use? | Hot Mess 🌎
Summary
TLDRThe video explores the energy usage and climate impact of the internet, which is powered by billions of devices and data centers consuming around 5% of global electricity. Despite contributing only 2% of global emissions, the internet facilitates more efficient practices like telecommuting and reducing physical goods. It also promotes sustainability through digital alternatives and innovations like AI-optimized cooling in data centers.
Takeaways
- 🌐 About half the world's population has internet access, totaling around 3.6 billion people.
- 🔌 The internet, including devices and data centers, consumes approximately 5% of the world's electricity.
- 💻 The energy usage of individual devices like smartphones and laptops is relatively low, but the collective impact is significant.
- 🌍 Data centers are a major consumer of energy, accounting for 1-2% of global electricity usage.
- 🌿 The internet's overall contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is around 2%, which is less than other sectors like transportation.
- 📈 The growth in energy use by the internet has been slow compared to the increase in users and devices, due to improvements in efficiency.
- 🚚 The internet facilitates better coordination, reducing unnecessary shipping and waste in manufacturing and logistics.
- 📚 Digital alternatives to physical items like CDs, DVDs, and newspapers produce fewer emissions.
- 🏡 Telecommuting and efficient navigation apps reduce travel and related emissions.
- 🤖 AI and technology advancements are helping to make data centers more energy-efficient, such as Google's 15% reduction in electricity usage.
- 🔄 The internet's impact on climate is complex; while it uses energy, it also enables more climate-friendly behaviors.
Q & A
How many people have internet access worldwide?
-Approximately half the world's population has internet access, which is around 3.6 billion people.
What percentage of the world's electricity is estimated to be used by internet-connected devices?
-Internet-connected devices are estimated to use around 5% of the world's electricity.
What are the main components that make up 'the internet'?
-The internet is made up of wires traversing the oceans, satellites, cell-phone towers, massive data centers, and a multitude of devices.
How many devices are currently connected to the internet?
-There are more than 30 billion devices connected to the internet, including cell phones, laptops, tablets, credit card readers, smart speakers, and smart appliances.
What is the second biggest energy consumer in the internet infrastructure after devices?
-Data centers are the second biggest energy consumer in the internet infrastructure, using around 1 to 2% of the world's total electricity.
What is the source of most of the electricity used by data centers?
-Most of the electricity used by data centers comes from burning fossil fuels, which release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
How does the internet's contribution to global emissions compare to other sectors?
-The internet contributes only around 2% of global emissions, which is less compared to sectors like transportation that cause almost a quarter of global emissions.
How has the internet helped to reduce physical waste?
-The internet has helped to reduce the production of physical items like CDs, DVDs, newspapers, snail mail, and textbooks by providing digital alternatives.
What is one example of how the internet has improved energy efficiency?
-Google has used artificial intelligence to better cool its data centers, resulting in a 15% reduction in electricity usage.
How does telecommuting help reduce emissions?
-Telecommuting reduces the need for travel, thereby cutting down on transportation emissions.
What is the overall impact of the internet on the climate according to the script?
-The overall impact of the internet on the climate is somewhere in the middle. While it uses energy, many activities enabled by the internet are more climate-friendly than their non-digital counterparts.
Outlines
🌐 Internet's Energy Consumption
The script discusses the energy usage of the internet, which is utilized by approximately 3.6 billion people globally. It highlights the various components of the internet, including undersea cables, satellites, cell towers, data centers, and billions of devices. The energy consumption of these devices is significant, accounting for about 5% of the world's electricity. Data centers, in particular, consume 1-2% of global electricity, primarily from fossil fuels. Despite this, the internet's contribution to global emissions is only around 2%, which is less compared to sectors like transportation. The script also points out that the internet's growth in energy use has been slow due to increased efficiency in hardware, software, and data centers.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Internet Access
💡Energy Consumption
💡Data Centers
💡Greenhouse Gases
💡Efficiency
💡Telecommuting
💡Artificial Intelligence
💡Sustainable Practices
💡Digital Counterparts
💡Carbon Neutral
💡Global Emissions
Highlights
Half the world has internet access, serving 3.6 billion people.
The internet's energy consumption and its impact on climate are significant concerns.
Devices like Alexa are part of a vast network consuming energy.
The internet is a complex system including wires, satellites, data centers, and billions of devices.
There are over 30 billion internet-connected devices globally.
Each device requires electricity, contributing to the internet's energy use.
Internet-connected devices are estimated to use around 5% of the world's electricity.
Data centers are the second largest energy consumers after devices, using 1-2% of global electricity.
Most electricity for data centers comes from fossil fuels, releasing greenhouse gases.
The internet contributes only about 2% of global emissions.
Energy use by the internet has increased slowly despite the growth in users and devices.
The internet has become more energy efficient through improvements in hardware, software, and data centers.
The internet enables more efficient communication, reducing the need for physical items and waste.
Telecommuting and digital maps reduce emissions by cutting down on travel.
Google used AI to optimize data center cooling, reducing electricity use by 15%.
The overall impact of the internet on climate is a mix of positive and negative effects.
Using the internet for good, such as supporting carbon-neutral initiatives, can help mitigate its climate impact.
Supporting Hot Mess on Patreon can contribute to making the show carbon neutral.
Subscribing and notifications are encouraged for staying updated with new videos.
Transcripts
About half the world has internet access.
That’s 3.6 billion people surfing the web.
How much energy is that using?
And what is our online world doing to our planet’s climate?
Hey Alexa, how much electricity do you use?
“Hmm I’m not sure” No worries, that’s what we’re here for.
[OPEN]
Hey!
I’m Miriam, and we need to talk about your internet habits.
The internet is pretty great - this wouldn’t be a thing without it.
But getting this video and all the other bits of the internet to you uses a lot of energy.
What we call ‘the internet’ is made up of a lot of things: wires traversing the oceans,
satellites and cell-phone towers, massive data centers sending packets of information
all over, and devices.
SO MANY DEVICES.
Today, there’s more than 30 billion things connected to the internet - that’s every
cell phone, laptop, and tablet, but also every credit card reader, creepy all-hearing speaker,
newfangled fridge with a TV on the front, and more things coming online every day.
Every single one of these devices requires electricity.
Charging a single phone or a laptop doesn’t use that much energy, but powering billions
of internet-connected devices adds up.
It’s hard to estimate exactly how much, because things are changing too fast to even
count, but in total, internet-connected devices probably use in the neighborhood of 5% of
the world’s electricity.
Once you’ve got your internet portal charged and ready to go, streaming a video or posting
a pic on Instagram draws on power from data centers distributed around the world.
After devices, data centers are the internet’s next biggest energy hog, using around 1 or
2% of the world’s total electricity.
And most of this electricity comes from burning fossil fuels, which release greenhouse gases
into the atmosphere.
But when compared to all the other things that produce greenhouse gases, like transportation,
which causes almost a quarter of global emissions, the internet is doing alright - in total,
it contributes only around 2% of global emissions.
And, compared to the speed with which more people are coming online worldwide, and the
rapid growth of connected devices, energy use by the internet has increased pretty slowly,
because our hardware, software, and data centers have become more energy efficient.
But the internet does a whole lot more than just use energy.
I mean, it’s changed nearly every aspect of life, and being able to communicate with
each other so quickly lets us do lots of things that are good for the climate.
Manufacturers and warehouses can coordinate better with stores to avoid unnecessary shipping
and reduce waste.
In fact, the internet helps us avoid producing a lot of physical things in the first place,
like CDs, DVDs, newspapers, snail mail, and textbooks.
Even when we make these as sustainably as possible, they still create more emissions
than their digital counterparts.
And then there’s telecommuting [Miriam’s face on computer], which cuts down on travel.
And maps on our phones, which reduce how long we spend driving around lost.
The internet can even make itself more efficient; using artificial intelligence, Google figured
out how to better cool its data centers, which ended up using 15% less electricity.
So is the overall impact of the internet on the climate good or bad?
Maybe the real answer is it's somewhere in the middle.
Everything we do on the internet uses energy, which, yeah, still mostly comes from burning
fossil fuels - but a lot of the things we can do because of the internet are better
for the climate than their analog alternatives.
So, don't feel too bad about using the internet, just, try to use it for good.
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