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Forums - Gaming - Surprise Digital Downloads Have Bigger Carbon Footprint Than Most Discs

SvennoJ on 04 September 2014

Damn, now I have to switch to digital cause I like the heat. How many trees do I need to burn to compensate for sticking to physical discs?



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baloofarsan on 04 September 2014
SvennoJ said:
Damn, now I have to switch to digital cause I like the heat. How many trees do I need to burn to compensate for sticking to physical discs?

LOL

Trees are not effective, better burn some gasoline, or better yet have a Bar-B-Q!



MikeRox on 04 September 2014
Dark_Feanor said:
"Carbon Footprint" is almost a arcane pseudo-science.

PS: Last gen downloads need the console to be fully operational, now PS4 and XOne can download at the background and in low power states.


Also doesn't factor in you could well be using the console to play something else whilst the download is running, meaning the system would have been powered up anyway.

Trivial matters mind, it's more to do with disposal from an eco viewpoint. Digital doesn't go into landfill.



RIP Dad 25/11/51 - 13/12/13. You will be missed but never forgotten.

NobleTeam360 on 04 September 2014

And I still don't really care



baloofarsan on 04 September 2014
MikeRox said:
Dark_Feanor said:
"Carbon Footprint" is almost a arcane pseudo-science.

PS: Last gen downloads need the console to be fully operational, now PS4 and XOne can download at the background and in low power states.


Also doesn't factor in you could well be using the console to play something else whilst the download is running, meaning the system would have been powered up anyway.

Trivial matters mind, it's more to do with disposal from an eco viewpoint. Digital doesn't go into landfill.

I know it is TL:DR for most people but it is only a couple of paragraphs.

This was quoted before in this thread:

"Games are usually downloaded in the background while the console is used primarily for other purposes. Because average on-time for each PS3 is 1.9 hours per day (Webb et al. 2013), files taking longer than this to download, on average, will result in consoles being left on until complete."



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baloofarsan on 04 September 2014
NobleTeam360 said:
And I still don't really care

I do not care that much either (it will probably not change the way I behave) but I get tired when people with the whole internet at their fingertips just straight out assumes stuff without any factual base.



Egann on 04 September 2014

A bit of perspective: if there is anything to this global warming stuff, then we hit the point of no return back in the 70's. The technical word for where we are now is FUCKED.

So switch to physical if you want the end of the world to be averted 0.01 nanoseconds.


And no, I refuse to call this "climate change." Climate change is technically an umbrella term which includes natural processes we have nothing to do with. Saying it and meaning man-made global warming via carbon emissions is intellectually dishonest.



jigokutamago on 04 September 2014
SvennoJ said:
Damn, now I have to switch to digital cause I like the heat. How many trees do I need to burn to compensate for sticking to physical discs?

Just move to Palm Springs or Mayasia or something.



mjk45 on 04 September 2014
burninmylight said:
VanceIX said:
Did they take into account the gas needed just to get to GameStop to pick up the game, or the extra energy needed to power the disc drive?

Not that I really care, tbh. Really anything will affect the environment in some way, its not like you're dumping sludge into rivers >_>


Or all the fuel used to ship the games across the oceans and/or country, and waste produced from the boxes and cases to store them in, along with manuals and advertisements (and the resources needed for said boxes, cases and paper). So many factors left out. I don't see how this study can be considered valid.

Exactly , we don't know what parameters these researchers used  did they go all the way back down the production line to find out the actual foot print and go forward to disposal and on the other side did they just calculate just the cost of download or did they include server cost and there are unknowns like what % of people for what ever reason download the same game more than once .



Research shows Video games  help make you smarter, so why am I an idiot

VanceIX on 04 September 2014
baloofarsan said:

You still continue to assume what the article says as you clearly have not read a word in it:

"Best estimate:

Blu-ray discs     Games development     0.14kg CO2-eq)     0.7% of total  

  Raw materials production and transport     0.27kg CO2-eq)     1.3 % of total  

  Manufacturing      0.01 kg CO2-eq)     0.0% of total  

  Distribution      0.28kg CO2-eq)      1.3% of total  

  Retail      0.08 kg CO2-eq)     0.4% of total  

  Transport home      0.43 kg CO2-eq)     2.1% of total  

  Gameplay (use)      19.48 kg CO2-eq)     93.6% of total  

  Disposal      0.13 kg CO2-eq)     0.6% of total  

  Total      20.82 kg CO2-eq)     100.0% of total  

  Total excluding gameplay and development      1.20 kg CO2-eq)     5.7%of total"   (This figure says that gameplay and development is 94.3% of the carbon footprint)

And you are assuming I didn't -_-

If you read the article, you see that they make a lot of assumptions and estimates, which accounts to absolutely nothing. WIthout pure, factual numbers, this research might as well be flushed down the drain.

They use very specific parameters which are completely different for most people.



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