Installing an ad blocker can significantly reduce your web data use and internet carbon footprint. I’m interested to know your thoughts on that, as it’s slightly controversial. Before getting to the ad-blocker, here’s a reminder of the key thing that you can do to reduce your internet carbon footprint: limit streaming 4K video on large TVs.
That was the conclusion of my last post, where I took a look at the carbon cost of internet data and estimated that:
- Data use in 2022 will average around 3,650 GB per person in the US, equating to an annual carbon footprint of 200 kg CO2 each.
- Watching video is responsible for the lion’s share of most people’s data footprint.
- Streaming 4K video to a large TV uses around 10 times more data (up to 7 GB per hour) than SD video, and 28 times more data than viewing video on a phone.
- So, a heavier user who streams 5 hours of 4K video per day will have a fairly significant data carbon footprint of 700 kg CO2, annually. That’s about the same as driving 3500 km (2200 miles).
So, the best way for most to reduce their internet carbon footprint is to manage without a huge 4K television, or at least be frugal with streaming ultra-high definition (UHD) video on it. Bear in mind that the information technology and communications (ICT) sector now accounts for around 3.7% of global CO2 emissions, more than air travel.
But there is another thing that you can think about: Using an ad blocker on your web browser to reduce your data use and hence your internet carbon footprint.
A study from Simon Fraser University showed that using AdBlock Plus reduced data use by 25-40%. Data use for a general web-browsing session was reduced by 25%, while data use for video-rich sessions was reduced by 40%. You can find a list of recommended ad blocker plugins for Mozilla Firefox here.
Is there a downside? Well, many websites and content creators do rely on advertising revenue to pay the bills. And I’ll emphasize again that if you’re a fairly light internet user then your data carbon footprint is not that significant. By far and away the biggest culprit is streaming UHD (4K or 8K) video on large TV screens.
Besides limiting (4K) video streaming, one of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce your online carbon footprint is to use Ecosia as your primary search engine.
As far as ad-blockers go, it’s your call – what do you think?
The Green Stars Project 
Always such great advice/info. Going to give ecosia a try. I trust it’s safe etc. Curious to see how I get on. Will let you know.
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Thanks Frances! How are you settling in to the UK?
Yep, Ecosia is legit – it’s transparent about operations and has many users now. See the link above for more info. In cases where the search results don’t lead me to an answer, I switch to Google (you can also type #g at the end of your search in Ecosia to run your search on Google; you can also use #w to search within Wikipedia, which is helpful).
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I know that the flashing ads are hard for me to deal with, with my visual issues. I hate those. I block them with a piece of cardboard when I’m in my Yahoo email (because I can’t afford the Yahoo plan to remove those ads). I don’t stream any movies anymore, and thanks for reminding me about Ecosia…I forgot to transfer over to it when I started using Edge.
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Yahoo is one of the worst sites for ads
Some sites just bombard you with video and ads and I’d have no compunction about using an ad blocker on them! If you install an ad-blocker plugin on your browser you can always switch it on/off, as needed.
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What a great tip!
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Cheers Elaine!
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I really hate ads but I do need them on my site for revenue. Otherwise I cannot pay for my site. So thank you for mentioning creators needing the revenue on this post. I myself do block ads though, talk about hypocrisy!
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Hey Julie – good to hear from you! And thanks for the honesty 🙂
It’s really more important if watching a ton of video rather than reading blogs that have banner ads.
It’s also an option, of course to just turn the ad blocker off when doing a session of blog reading.
Cheers!
J
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Interesting article that poses many questions, such as should there be a carbon tax placed on streaming services such as Amazon and NetFlix?
As for Ad blockers I have always used one to cut down as much to the unwanted Ads as possible, but governments need to do more to protect people from this endless, often unwanted bombardment.
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Hi Kevin,
Thanks for commenting. Yes, a carbon tax on streaming would make sense.
In the meantime, it’s good to be aware of how they rank in terms of impact:
1. YouTube (Google) and Apple both do a pretty good job at using renewable energy.
2. Netflix came under fire for a high carbon footprint may have improved somewhat.
3. Amazon is the worst of the major players – here’s more on Amazon’s environmental impact.
Cheers!
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