The pandemic has brought a lot of changes in the life of the people and one of the most significant changes was to study and work from home. Since the offices were closed down, people worked and studied from home. All the educational institutions and companies meet at online meeting platforms like zoom, teams, etc. All these platforms support audio and video meetings and can accommodate a large number of people. However, did you know that video meetings contribute heavily to carbon footprint? Carbon footprint is nothing but the levels of carbon-di-oxide that is emitted in the air by human activities.
Some recent researches have concluded that video meetings emit much more carbon-di-oxide than the meetings done using only audio. So, if a person in a meeting doesn’t switch on the camera or video, the emission levels can be decreased. Carbon emission levels are very much responsible for environmental pollution and degradation and if one can stop or reduce the same just by preventing video meetings, why not go for it?
Why Do People Need To Switch Over To Only-Audio Meetings?
Many studies and surveys have proved that the pandemic has brought positive results when it comes to pollution control. However, these results can become even better just by preventing the use of technology and ensuring to use them in a way that the pollution levels stay as low as possible. People don’t usually realize the harm that is caused to the environment because of the heavy usage of electronic gadgets and technology. It may be surprising for you to know that video meetings emit much higher CO2 levels than meetings that are audio-only.
People cannot just stop attending meetings as the current scenario has forced people to work and study using online technology. But people can surely contribute to decreasing the pollution levels just by avoiding video calls. The studies carried out on the virtual activities also revealed that the streaming behavior of people can change things a lot. The study has concluded that the emission levels can be very less if people compromise on the quality of video-streaming a little bit. Yes, watching a video at 1080p indeed produces way more Carbon emissions than watching the same video at 480p. If people start stressing about these little things, the emission levels can be decreased a lot.
Is There A Problem In Switching Over To Only-Audio Meetings?
Every one of you must have attended a zoom meeting at some point of time during the lockdown times. It is very clear that most of the time, video calling is not at all necessary as everything important can be imparted through audio. One doesn’t need to switch on the video to solve the purpose of a meeting. Talking about online classes, many students are attending the classes and it is not at all important that every student switches on their video because mostly there is only one person who is speaking. Teachers also can deliver the study material through audio, supported by screen sharing.
Business or professional meetings also are quite similar and employees or attendees don’t require seeing each other’s faces to carry out a discussion. If there is a significant decrease in the carbon footprint when the video during a meeting is off, there isn’t a problem at all. Environmental degradation is on a downfall due to the lockdown and decreased human activities but if there is a little bit of effort by the people, the results can be wonderful and pollution levels can drop unbelievably.
How Much Does Technology Contribute To Environmental Degradation?
As of now, you must have heard those human activities such as littering, improper waste disposal, honking, mining, deforestation, etc cause environmental degradation but this is not it. Surprisingly, the use of technology also is heavily responsible for adding to the pollution levels in the environment.
The recent research about technology and the carbon footprint has shown that the increased use of the internet all across the world has collectively spiked up the carbon emission level. Since all the other human activities responsible for emission levels is on sop, the internet and technology are the factors that are held responsible now. Although, the emission levels produces by the technology are not so much, people must stress on the same as it is important not to ignore any factor that is responsible for degradation.