The cost of our daily carbon traces
Humanity’s carbon footprint is usually framed around cars, flights, and factories. But as of late, it is increasingly tied to the invisible emissions from our every-day routines, emails, streaming, cloud storage, and AI models. These are driving a growing share of climate change. A carbon footprint measures the total greenhouse gases released by our actions, mostly CO₂. For the average person, that adds up to about 750 kg of CO₂ per month — or roughly 9 tons a year. Apart from our major tasks, these come from the seemingly small things we barely notice: shopping, commuting and the digital habits like our daily virtual meetings which come with a cost: switching off your camera can cut emissions by 96%, since video calls emit almost 25× more CO₂ than audio-only.
AI’s fast-rising emissions
The biggest spike in recent years comes from the companies building the AI systems we use every day. According to a United Nations report, indirect emissions from Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta rose an average of 150% between 2020 and 2023, driven by the soaring electricity demands of data centers. The breakdown is as follows: Amazon: +182%, Microsoft: +155%, Meta: +145%, Alphabet: +138%. If current trends continue, data centers could make up 3.5%of global carbon emissions by 2025 and consume up to 20% of the world’s electricity. And by 2040, storing digital data alone may generate 14% of global emissions, about what the entire US emits today.
Your Netflix Marathon has a footprint
Streaming platforms have transformed how we consume entertainment as well as our internet energy usage. Across Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+, recent estimates place total streaming emissions around 11 million tons. A report by InterDigital, revealed video streaming accounts for 4% of global carbon emissions, compared to 2% for all aviation. And estimates by The Carbon Trust, showed streaming produces 55 g of CO₂e per hour, which is 50× higher than audio streaming and about the same as microwaving four bags of popcorn. Spotify's expansion into video streaming also means users who previously consumed low-energy audio are moving toward significantly higher-emission formats. Device choice matters much, a smart TV draws far more power than a smartphone, and 4K video can multiply emissions several times over.
In 2024, Netflix alone reported 94 billion hours of content streamed by 301.63 million memberships.
By using Carbon trust estimates this means: Globally, Netflix’s 2024 footprint totaled 5.17 million metric tons of CO₂e. For scale, that’s equivalent to 30 billion km driven in a petrol car (or 759,000 trips around Earth), 8.36 million one-way flights from Paris to New York and annual emissions of 517,000 people in the UK.
The sky-high emissions of the Elite
Our daily digital habits take much of the spotlight while private jet emissions remain the elephant in the room. Celebrities have been widely criticized as “climate criminals” for their flight patterns and the numbers validate the outrage. Aviation is already one of the most carbon-intensive ways to travel, and frequent travel using private jets is the most polluting tier within that category. Taylor Swift reportedly took 170 flights in 7 months, producing 8,000 tons of CO₂ — 1,184× the annual emissions of an average person. One of the trips was a 6 km flight lasting 40 seconds to avoid traffic. Recently her private jet was sprayed with orange paint by climate change activists from the Just Stop Oil platform after landing in London. The activists argued that "A single flight on a private jet can easily emit as much carbon dioxide as the average annual carbon footprint of an EU citizen".
In a recent study by ICCT, it was found that in 2023, private jets emitted 19.5 million tons of GHGs, a 25% increase over the past decade. They now account for nearly 4% of all civil aviation emissions. The report also noted that the U.S. accounts for 65% of all private jet flights in 2023, making it responsible for more than half (55%) of GHG emissions globally.
Los Angeles’s Van Nuys Airport located in Los Angeles, is one of the world’s most polluting hubs, hosting jets for Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian, and more.
Speaking to The Guardian, Economist Piketty notes that without addressing carbon footprint inequalities between the rich and the poor, climate policies will face a backlash. The reason is that many climate policies require raising energy costs which tend to hurt the poor. His solution is a progressive carbon tax that reflects who’s emitting the most, and in some cases that means banning the private use of jets altogether.