New study reveals hidden environmental costs of online activities

Dar es Salaam. Perusing social media or binge-watching the newest series might appear harmless, but a recent study suggests that online activities come with an unseen environmental toll.

Titled The Environmental Sustainability of Digital Content Consumption, the study was published by Nature Communications Journal on May 2, 2024.

Experts have recently found that the global average consumption of web surfing, social media, video and music streaming, and video conferencing could account for approximately 40 percent of the per capita carbon budget, consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“Decarbonising electricity would substantially mitigate the climate impacts linked to Internet consumption,” suggest study researchers.

Internet access has already exceeded five billion people (about 60 percent of the global population), leading to global data traffic of 3.4 zettabytes (ZB) in 2021, a remarkable 440 percent growth since 2015.

At present, the average internet user spends approximately seven hours per day online, with social media and video streaming being the most widely consumed digital services (over two hours per day).

“Despite the ubiquity of the Internet in our lives, its environmental footprint started to gain public interest only recently, partially fuelled by studies highlighting the substantial energy consumption of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector,” the study reads in part.

The study correlated user consumption patterns with the natural resources needed and emissions produced across the entire life cycle of internet network components, spanning from raw material extraction to manufacturing, distribution, operation, and end-of-life management.

To gauge the impacts on the per capita earth’s carrying capacity, the researchers evaluated 16 indicators concerning climate change, nutrients, air pollution, toxicity, and resource use.

Their findings revealed that the global average consumption of activities such as web surfing, social media, video and music streaming, and video conferencing could contribute to approximately 55 percent of the per capita carrying capacity for mineral and metal resource use.

Others are 20 percent for freshwater eutrophication and over 10 percent for particulate matter, ecotoxicity, and fossil resource use.

The researchers thus emphasise the necessity of addressing efforts to mitigate the impacts of ICT infrastructure.

In Tanzania, it is even more relevant as the use of internet services continues to gain traction.

The country had 36.8 million internet users by the end of March 2024, according to the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA).

2G technology is the most used, with 12.3 million users, while Fibre to the Home (FTTH) and Fibre to the Office (FTTO) are used by 49,163 lines and 5,126 lines, respectively.

Tanzanian utilities have 335 petabytes of data monthly as of the TCRA March 2024 revelations.