About the impact of the internet on climate change

And what we can do about it.

Our climate is changing. And not for the better. This is a fact and it is caused by our activities and modern life style. Our growing consumption of digital leads to a giant growth of electricity usage of the world wide web. Since most electricity comes from fossil fuels, the internet has a huge carbon footprint, comparable to air travel. By 2025, it is estimated to become 5 times as large.

Estimate the carbon footprint of your website

Yes, the internet has a carbon footprint. And indeed, websites contribute to carbon emissions and climate change. Read here how you can estimate your website’s contribution and what you can do about it.

Check the weight of a web page

The size, or the weight, of a web page is the data that is required to build the page when you visit it for the first time. It is not the only parameter to keep an eye on when you optimise a website, but is an important one. Read here how to determine web page size.

This blog is meant to raise awareness about the impact of the internet and other digital services on our planet. Since all these technologies require a lot of electricity, they should be well-designed and used consciously to minimise their negative environmental impact.

Why I built this site?

The idea was to build a site with a small size and a low carbon footprint.

I built this site originally for the contest 10k apart. The goal was to go back to the basics of web development and build a website that can be delivered in less than 10 kilobytes (10 kB). The original version is delivered in about 7 kB. As for comparison, an empty Word document is around 11 kB and an average web page is more than 3000 kB (3 MB)!

The homepage of this WordPress site is delivered in about 45 kb. Read how this site was built.

WordPress site

Be the change you want to see in the world

Several people have committed to fight global warming. Will you?
We need to do this together!