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| Jesus's footprints are made up of miracles and not carbon, I assume. |
Someone recently asked NPR's All Tech that question, specifically about the footprint of a text message. There's a solid chance that if you're reading this you're going to send dozens, if not hundreds, of text messages today. So what sort of damage are you really doing besides being antisocial?
All Tech turned to Mike Berners-Lee, the author of the 2010 book How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint Of Everything, and all-around impact calculator at Small World Consulting at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. This is his life. And the result of your texting addiction? Fairly minimal.
According to Berners-Lee, assuming we only focus on the actual text message itself and the ability to transmit it (thus, ignoring the manufacture and distribution of the phone to begin with), each text leaves behind 0.014 grams of CO2e. Are you writing 1,000 texts a day? Perform the math accordingly. Berners-Lee notes that in 2010 the estimate for all the world's text messaging carbon footprint was 32,000 tons of CO2e per year. It's probably edged up a bit in the ensuing six years.
That sounds like a lot, but the world produces 50 billion tons of CO2e per year. Writing texts is barely a drop then. So how does this compare to other forms of communication?
Text message: 0.014 grams of CO2e per text
Email: 4 grams of CO2e per email
Letter: 140 grams of CO2e per letter (assuming the letter weighs 10 grams, is made of recycled paper, and is later recycled again)
Berners-Lee says it would take 10,000 texts to equal the carbon footprint of a letter.
But admit it--you're really concerned about one thing here: Does your addiction to emoji use affect the text message carbon footprint?
The answer is no. It's the same as any other character typed into the text box.
Phew. Or, better said:
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