Climate change has been at the forefront of political debates for decades, with Generation Z leading the charge in recent years. Nearly 50% of Gen Z say mitigating the impacts of climate change needs to be prioritized today, even at the expense of other important problems.
Despite Gen Z fiercely mobilizing for climate activism in recent years — both online and in the real world — their social media habits may be contributing more to climate change than previously thought. Gen Z has the largest internet carbon footprint of any generation. More surprisingly, the number of texts sent in a day have the biggest impact on our personal tech-based carbon footprint. In order to truly mitigate climate change, our generation needs to look at our own contributions to the crisis with as much scrutiny as we give the contributions of older generations.
Gen Z sends an average of 124 texts a day, adding over 650 grams of carbon dioxide to the environment annually. In comparison to older generations aged 24 to over 55, who combined yield a yearly average of 176 texts per day, Gen Z is increasingly contributing to our internet carbon footprint. In addition to texting, “doom scrolling” on TikTok has significantly contributed to the detrimental effects of climate change. One person scrolling through TikTok or other social media platforms amasses 968 grams of CO2 per day, which is the equivalent of the emissions of driving a car 2.4 miles.
But how does intensive internet use equate to a carbon footprint?
The tech industry alone accounts for over 7% of global carbon emissions. These emissions can be attributed to mineral extraction, high-speed internet and the fossil fuel used used to power these high-speed devices and platforms.
Our carbon footprint encompasses the total amount of greenhouse gasses released due to our personal activities, and electronic device use can have an outsized effect on our personal footprint. The increased demand for new technology, updates and data usage leads to the exacerbation and growth of the internet’s carbon footprint.
This information can be extremely overwhelming; it feels as though every effort to curb carbon emissions seems to fall through — especially when the main channel through which our generation advocates for climate change awareness is actively contributing to carbon emissions. However, there are ways that we can individually lower our own internet carbon emissions for the sustainability of our planet.
According to the Senior Vice President of Engineering at CloudZero, Bill Buckley, there are multiple steps that people, especially Gen Z, can take to reduce their tech-related carbon footprint. For one, we can consistently check the storage on our phones and remove unnecessary apps. This not only frees up space but will decrease the amount of energy used to power the app when it is not in use. Secondly, reducing your everyday use of technology as a whole can significantly lessen your contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. As difficult of a task as this may sound, we can reduce our usage of technology by giving ourselves time limits for how long we can be on our devices.
Our energy consumption is only going to continue to rise unless we change our lifestyles. As a generation, we are characterized by our global advocacy and activism for social change, but must acknowledge how our own actions are working against this positive change. Our generation as well as the generations after us will continue to suffer from climate change if we don’t change our individual lifestyles for the betterment of others and the world.
Similarly to the boycotting efforts in support of Gaza and Sudan, we need to initiate change to begin the generational push to improve and preserve our planet. For example, we can limit the purchase of new Apple products — which are made with unethically sourced materials — and instead choose to purchase refurbished technology on platforms like the Back Market.
By beginning incrementally with shorter screen time on our technology, we can gradually mitigate our personal contributions to climate change.
WSN’s Opinion section strives to publish ideas worth discussing. Opinions expressed in the house editorial reflect the views of WSN’s Editorial Board.
Contact Leila Olukoga at [email protected].
