上网也增加排放？发Email、看信息都在增加你的“数字碳足迹”

中等

高中三年级

说明文

现代科技

什么是“数字碳足迹”？对地球的影响有多大？节能减碳，其实也包含了我们在网络上的行为足迹。或许说了你会很意外，虽然数字科技的飞速发展让我们工作、日常生活中的许多流程都已转向电子化，你在网络上所操作的一小步骤仍极有可能会产生碳足迹，简单来说，包括发送E-mail、听音乐、看短视频等等都是！

The Internet’s carbon footprint is as bad as air travel. While the Internet’s carbon footprint is difficult to measure precisely, estimates place it at over two per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions—the same as the aviation industry.

互联网的碳足迹和航空旅行一样糟糕。虽然互联网的碳足迹很难精确测量，但据估计，它占全球温室气体排放量的2% 以上 -- 与航空业相同。

Information may appear to spread around the world unseen to our eyes, but it actually passes through enormous data centres placed strategically about the globe, which store, organise and deliver everyone’s data. These data centres are extremely energy intensive—in the EU, they consume close to three per cent of its total energy usage. They also require lots of water to prevent their computers from overheating. In the US, about a fifth of data centres draw water from already stressed water sources.

信息似乎在我们看不见的情况下传播到世界各地，但它实际上是通过战略性地放置在全球各地的巨大数据中心传递的，这些数据中心存储、组织和传递每个人的数据。这些数据中心能源密集型 -- 在欧盟，它们消耗的能源占其总使用量的近3%。他们还需要大量的水来防止电脑过热。在美国，大约五分之一的数据中心从已经紧张的水源中取水。

A typical spam email(垃圾邮件) emits around 0.03g of CO2 emissions, though longer messages read on a laptop can go all the way up to 26g. Now multiply that by 333 billion—roughly the number of emails that get sent every day in 2022. That puts all those work emails into perspective. One study found that if every British adult sent one less “thank you” email a day, it would save 16,433 tonnes of carbon a year.

一封典型的垃圾邮件会排放大约0.03克的二氧化碳，尽管在笔记本电脑上阅读的更长的信息可以一直达到26克。现在将其乘以3330亿-大约是2022年每天发送的电子邮件数量。这让所有的工作邮件都有了正确的视角。一项研究发现，如果每个英国成年人每天少发一封 “谢谢” 邮件，每年将节省16,433吨碳。

One study recently predicted that the ICT industry could account for up to a fifth of the world’s energy consumption by 2025. However, there are actions that we as individuals can take to reduce our digital carbon footprint.

最近的一项研究预测，到2025年，ICT行业可能占全球能源消耗的五分之一。然而，作为个人，我们可以采取一些行动来减少我们的数字碳足迹。