The arrival of the Chinese DeepSeek AI app, which, according to a detailed comparison by Digidrop, has a drastically reduced environmental impact of 90% less energy and 92% lower carbon footprint than its main rival, ChatGPT, has highlighted the immense energy use of servers across the world that keep the internet running (The DeepSeek panic reveals an AI world ready to blow, 28 January). According to a report in June 2023 by the Columbia Climate School, internet use accounts for between 2.5% and 3.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, exceeding those of the aviation industry, so with increased use of AI it has almost certainly risen since then.
With undeleted emails going back years and trillions of forgotten photographs stored in the cloud, we are all guilty of contributing to this. I suggest, therefore, that instead of just sanctimoniously sitting around a candle at home on Earth Day (22 April), we spend the time deleting anything from our digital history that is unwanted, and then build this discipline into a regular routine. An alternative to Buy Nothing Day, it could catch on and make us feel a tiny bit more comfortable about our digital addictions.
Patrick Cosgrove
Bucknell, Shropshire
