New German study highlights carbon footprint of video, games streaming

BERLIN, Sept 10, (AP): Streaming high-definition video and games can result in significant greenhouse gas emissions, depending on the technology used, according to a German government-backed study released Thursday.

The report published by Germany’s Federal Environment agency calculated the amount of carbon dioxide produced by data centers where material is stored for streaming, and by the transmission technology used to get it to consumers.

It concluded that streaming video over fiber optic cables results in the lowest amount of CO2 emissions - 2 grams per hour. Using copper cables produces twice that amount, while 3G mobile technology results in a hefty 90 grams of CO2 per hour.

The report’s authors said streaming over next-generation mobile technology, known as 5G, would result in carbon dioxide emissions of 5 grams per hour, suggesting that widespread rollout could help cut energy consumption.

Data centers, meanwhile, accounted for only a small share of the overall energy use, though the amount varied significantly depending on how efficiently servers were used and cooled, according to the report.

“The 2030s are going to be noticeably worse than the 2020s,” she said.

University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist, said in 30 years because of the climate change already baked into the atmosphere “we’re pretty much guaranteed that we’ll have double what we have now.”

Expect stronger winds, more drought, more heavy downpours and floods, Abdalati said.

“The kind of things we’re seeing are no surprise to the (scientific) community that understands the rules and the laws of physics,” Abdalati said.

“A lot of people want to blame it on 2020, but 2020 didn’t do this,” Dello said. “We know the behavior that caused climate change.”

Christian Stoll, am energy expert who wasn’t involved in the study, said the figures appeared plausible but noted that they didn’t take into account the amount of electricity consumed by the devices used to watch the streamed videos.

“(This) represent a significant part of the total emissions,” said Stoll, a researcher at the Technical University Munich’s Center for Energy Markets and the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.

Presenting the report, German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said the study was an attempt to help provide solid data for decision-makers as digital infrastructure becomes increasingly important at the same time as countries try to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that heat up the atmosphere.

“It is possible to stream data without negatively impacting the climate if you do it right and choose the right method for data transmission,” she said. “From an environmental perspective, it would be a good idea to set up more public WiFi hotspots, as this is more climate-friendly than streaming in mobile networks.”

Consider the world’s environment like an engine: “We have injected more energy into the system because we have trapped more heat into the atmosphere,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

That means more energy for tropical storms as well as changes to rainfall patterns that bring drought to some places and heavy rainfall to others, Taalas said.

In California, where more than 2.3 million acres have burned, the fires are spurred by climate change drying plants and trees that then go up in flames, said University of Colorado fire scientist Jennifer Balch. California is in the midst of a nearly 20-year mega-drought, the first of its kind in the United States since Europeans arrived, Overpeck said.