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Consequences of Our Digital Footprint

  • drewco5
  • Apr 26, 2022
  • 3 min read

Updated: May 16, 2022

Every time we turn on a device and every action we take online, we contribute to the growing problems of global warming and climate change.

Photo by NASA on Unsplash


As digital technology and the Internet continue to develop and insert themselves into more aspects of daily life, the impact of our digital footprints will only grow larger -- and its consequences more dire. As of 2022, more than 3.5 billion people, almost half the world's population, now have access to the internet. Annual internet traffic around the world is expected to reach 4.2 zettabytes (Zb) of data or the equivalent of 4.2 x 10^15 megabytes (Mb)! Even regular objects including cars, household appliances, and watches have begun to connect to the internet and was even estimated to reach over 20 billion device connections in 2020.


Despite its status as a third world country, the Philippines is a major contributor to the global digital footprint. In the Philippines alone, about 67% of the population was connected to the internet in 2021, translating to over 74 million connections! On average, Filipinos also spend 10.56 hours on the internet per day, which is the highest all over the world! Among this, 5.54 hours are reportedly spent on mobiles phones, while the rest are on personal computers. Over 80% of the population is also on social media, spending an average of 4 hours and 15 minutes on various social media sites, which is also the highest in the entire world. Additionally, the country also has some of the slowest internet speeds at 22.5 mbps, increasing the average time spent online.


All of these compound into the growing electrical costs needed to maintain our now technology-dependent lifestyles. In 2020, the global digital sector had a total energy demand of 1935 terawatt-hours (TWh), approximately 3.3% of the entire world’s electric consumption, and this is expected to increase by 50% within the next decade to up to 3200 TWh. In the present, primary contributors to this energy demand are device manufacturing and television use. However, as the internet becomes more widely used, areas like mobile networks, internet-connected devices, and data computing will soon catch up to this demand.


So what does this mean for the environment?


As with most forms of energy consumption, the digital sector is directly tied to carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2019, the digital sector was responsible for approximately 3.7% of all GHG emissions around the world, significantly more than the entire aviation industry at around 2%, which is often seen as one of the world’s leading contributors. Even with the push towards renewable energy across the energy sector, carbon emissions by the digital sector are on pace to increase 26% by the end of the decade.


To put into perspective of our everyday online activities, video streaming sites are used to watch around 1 billion hours of videos a day worldwide. This is the equivalent of 6 billion grams of CO2 produced every day. There are 306 billion emails sent every day with only 20% actually being read, yet this produces 1.2 trillion grams of CO2 daily. Every email sent emits about 4 grams of CO2 and can even go up to 50 grams with attachments! Popular social media sites have around 1.7 billion daily users, releasing 1.3 billion grams of CO2. However, all this only comprises the internet use and data management portions of the digital sector. As the leading factor of energy demand, device manufacturing also contributes a significant amount to carbon emissions, not to mention the destruction caused by mining their components and the release of toxic material into the environment.


In the end, we have to realize that with every time we turn on a device and every action we take online, we contribute to the growing problems of global warming and climate change. As hard as it is to imagine, our daily habits on the internet contribute to rising temperatures, extreme weather patterns, habitat loss, and disruptions to the ecosystems. If we are not careful, our digital footprints could leave permanent and devastating damage on the real world.



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