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Does your job create climate damage?
I’m sure you have thought about how your actions affect climate change on a personal level, and most likely you do everything in your power to help reduce your carbon footprint and lower emissions. We all want to avoid a real-life sequel to Kevin Costner’s post-apocalyptic adventure Waterworld, but are we writing the screenplay without knowing it? I sat down with a really great friend of mine, and had a short discussion about this topic, and the results were rather interesting.
Me: “How much climate damage happens from poorly optimized websites?”
ChatGPT: “Poorly optimized websites can contribute to climate change by consuming more energy and generating more carbon emissions. This can happen when websites have a lot of large images or videos that take a long time to load, or when they are not designed to be mobile-friendly and require more data to be transferred.
The exact amount of damage that is caused by poorly optimized websites is difficult to quantify, but it is likely to be a relatively small portion of the overall emissions generated by the internet and other forms of technology. However, it is important to keep in mind that small contributions can add up, and reducing the energy consumption of websites and other technology can help to mitigate the effects of climate change.”
