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I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

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In human history, we’ve never streamed, zoomed, and scrolled more than right now. With 10 million metric tons of CO2 per year created by YouTube alone, it represents a rapidly growing energy footprint.

Cue ‘Earth Definition’, a film that shines a light on the scale of carbon emissions caused by online streaming. The initiative asks online video streamers to change their streaming settings from HD down to SD and save 75% of their streaming energy and carbon.

When I heard the Earth Definition idea it grabbed me immediately. It’s so simple; stream at SD and reduce your energy draw and carbon output. Straight off the bat, I knew this film needed a low-fi style. I drew inspiration from early 3D wireframe games like Combat Zone that I remember playing as a kid at our local arcade. I felt that giving the film a naive prototype line-art style would give viewers that sense of optimism you get when an idea is cool and new. It’s the start of something, of asking less of our pixels for the sake of the planet.

Earth Definition

Earth Definition – Beach dude

I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

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Earth Definition – Skater girl

I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

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Earth Definition – Video server

I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

Earth Definition – Pixel station

I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

Earth Definition – Filling up with HD

I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

Earth Definition – Pixel car

I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

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Earth Definition – Phone emissions

I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

Earth Definition – Phone emissions 2

I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

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Earth Definition – HD invaders

I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

Earth Definition – Cute cat video

I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

Earth Definition – Beach dude and crab

I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

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I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

Simon Robson

This lazy panda forgot to write something about itself.

This lazy panda forgot to write something about itself.

Violeta Draseikaitė

My name is Violeta and I am an editor here at Bored Panda. I love reading memes for a living. It’s obviously much more than that, but I appreciate the variety of topics, information, and pics I get to see every day and share with the world! Those funny memes really make my day too. Being born in the ’90s in post-Soviet Lithuania speaks more about me than I’d like to admit. I’m still learning about the world and myself, but I do love my friends, traveling, art, and my cat. My favorite fact to share about myself is that I used to hide meatballs in my friend’s pockets at lunch so I could go play outside. I wish all those meatballs could find their way back to me someday.

My name is Violeta and I am an editor here at Bored Panda. I love reading memes for a living. It’s obviously much more than that, but I appreciate the variety of topics, information, and pics I get to see every day and share with the world! Those funny memes really make my day too. Being born in the ’90s in post-Soviet Lithuania speaks more about me than I’d like to admit. I’m still learning about the world and myself, but I do love my friends, traveling, art, and my cat. My favorite fact to share about myself is that I used to hide meatballs in my friend’s pockets at lunch so I could go play outside. I wish all those meatballs could find their way back to me someday.

Diana Lopetaitė

Hey there, Pandas! My name is Diana (though some prefer to refer to me as Diane, Deanna, and even Liana sometimes), and I am a Community Post Moderator Lead for Bored Panda. As my position title states, I am one of the people (employed Pandas for bamboo) over here who work with the community side of things on this website to ensure all is well, and while at that, I also help various creators and artists get recognition for the incredible work they do by connecting them to a large worldwide audience. Other than that, outside of work, you can find me brewing a nice cup of coffee, making a pizza from scratch, or baking brownies. I also love traveling, concerts, and cats (heavy on that, because I am a cat mom).

Hey there, Pandas! My name is Diana (though some prefer to refer to me as Diane, Deanna, and even Liana sometimes), and I am a Community Post Moderator Lead for Bored Panda. As my position title states, I am one of the people (employed Pandas for bamboo) over here who work with the community side of things on this website to ensure all is well, and while at that, I also help various creators and artists get recognition for the incredible work they do by connecting them to a large worldwide audience. Other than that, outside of work, you can find me brewing a nice cup of coffee, making a pizza from scratch, or baking brownies. I also love traveling, concerts, and cats (heavy on that, because I am a cat mom).

What do you think ?

anarkzie 3 years ago

That was really cool and I learnt about something I never even knew was a problem before.

0points

Blakkur Sverrir 3 years ago

Here is one problem, I have with this (I won't say "THE" problem, but one): I prefer text over video. This way I can get the information into my head faster. And I prefer my info pure, without all the private life/opinion BS that the Uploader feels the need to tell, while I am looking for a tiny bit of info. Also I am a bit sound-sensible. Thats why I prefer to videos with a lot of text overlay, that I can watch on mute, maybe with subtitles. Let's take a cooking recipe for example, so we all got the same picture. In SD, you cant read the text. Even in 720 it's often hard. You DO see a difference. Maybe not with cat videos, but as soon as you need to see/read smaller details you see and need, HD. TLDR: Make your text overlays bigger or put them in the description. Thank you

-1point

Simon Robson (Post author) 3 years ago

So then if you need HD to read text, you should switch up to HD. But by defaulting to SD, HD becomes an option you need if necessary as opposed to energy expensive default. In short, let’s have a system that lets us use the extra energy and carbon of HD if we need it, but defaults to SD for all those who don’t

0points

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anarkzie 3 years ago

That was really cool and I learnt about something I never even knew was a problem before.

0points

Blakkur Sverrir 3 years ago

Here is one problem, I have with this (I won't say "THE" problem, but one): I prefer text over video. This way I can get the information into my head faster. And I prefer my info pure, without all the private life/opinion BS that the Uploader feels the need to tell, while I am looking for a tiny bit of info. Also I am a bit sound-sensible. Thats why I prefer to videos with a lot of text overlay, that I can watch on mute, maybe with subtitles. Let's take a cooking recipe for example, so we all got the same picture. In SD, you cant read the text. Even in 720 it's often hard. You DO see a difference. Maybe not with cat videos, but as soon as you need to see/read smaller details you see and need, HD. TLDR: Make your text overlays bigger or put them in the description. Thank you

-1point

Simon Robson (Post author) 3 years ago

So then if you need HD to read text, you should switch up to HD. But by defaulting to SD, HD becomes an option you need if necessary as opposed to energy expensive default. In short, let’s have a system that lets us use the extra energy and carbon of HD if we need it, but defaults to SD for all those who don’t

0points

Load More Replies...

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