Data in cloud storage is contributing to the climate crisis as well as the aerospace industry

A new survey by the British Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) has reached a clear conclusion. Storing unnecessary photos, videos and other files online contributes significantly to the climate crisis. The news.sky.com portal covered the topic.

For example, the amount of carbon dioxide generated in Britain, which comes from unnecessary data stored online, is comparable to that created by up to 112,500 two-way flights from London to Australia.

Is it time for a change?

Based on this survey, we should review our behavior and habits. It’s relatively easy to enable automatic backups on your smartphone, such as Google Photos, which until recently offered unlimited storage.

People create a wealth of photos and videos every day that travel to online stores around the world. Storage on servers creates a carbon footprint, which, according to the report, is as important as that produced by the aviation industry. It’s an alarming finding.

The study was aimed at users in Britain, but a similar trend can be observed around the world, including Slovakia. The average adult in the UK takes almost 900 photos a year. An additional 5 photos will be created for each published online photo.

Lots of unwanted shots

The shots that remain in the cloud and are among the “unwanted” ones (whether we don’t like them or duplicates) accumulate up to 10.6 kg of carbon dioxide emissions per person per year.

“Until now, CO2 emissions have been talked about mainly in connection with large contributors, such as the aviation industry and transport in general, the food industry and so on. However, this is far from the end. In our lives, various figures are also associated with hidden carbon costs. Most of us don’t even realize that using cloud storage means huge, energy-intensive data centers are needed. ”

Chris Cartwright, President of the IET

The trend is clear, data will increase

The IET further says that the vast majority of data has been generated in the last two years. This trend will certainly not slow down, quite the opposite. There are more and more devices connected to the Internet in the world and more and more data is being moved every year.

If you care about our planet and want to lead a “more sustainable” way of life, researchers recommend regularly deleting unwanted emails, photos or videos, but also, for example, limit the use of the “reply to all” function. In some cases, we cannot imagine that.