STREAMING CARBON FOOTPRINT
Streaming media is calculated to contribute a surprising 1% of global greenhouse gases, because most regions of the world obtain electricity from fossil fuels to power their data centers, networks, and devices. Streaming large files in large quantities, then, ethically implicates spectators in the warming of the planet. Bad news — but we have some solutions!
Here’s the full report, evidence brief, and best-practices recommendations from Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media, a year-long collaboration between ICT engineers Stephen Makonin and SFMF’s Laura U. Marks and Radek Przedpełski, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: “Streaming Carbon Footprint”.
RESEARCH AND RESOURCES
Ready to delve deeper into why Small Files are so important? This list of resources is a great start into exploring the entangled relationship between streaming media and the environment.
Streaming and the Environment
- Stephen Makonin, Laura U. Marks, Radek Przedpełski, "Calculating the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media: Beyond the Myth of Efficiency" https://limits.pubpub.org/pub/calc/release/1
- Laura U. Marks, "A Survey of ICT Engineering Research Confirms Streaming Media’s Carbon Footprint" https://mediaenviron.org/post/1116-a-survey-of-ict-engineering-research-confirms-streaming-media-s-carbon-footprint-by-laura-u-marks
- Laura U. Marks, "Let’s Deal with the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media" https://online.ucpress.edu/afterimage/issue/47/2
- Stephen Makonin, Laura U. Marks, Radek Przedpełski, Ramy El Mallah, Alejandro Rodriguez-Silva, "Calculating the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media: Beyond the Myth of Efficiency" https://limits.pubpub.org/pub/calc/release/1
- Laura U. Marks, "A Survey of ICT Engineering Research Confirms Streaming Media’s Carbon Footprint" https://mediaenviron.org/post/1116-a-survey-of-ict-engineering-research-confirms-streaming-media-s-carbon-footprint-by-laura-u-marks?campaign=affiliatesection
- The Shift Project, "Climate Crisis: The Unsustainable Use of Online Video" https://theshiftproject.org/en/article/lean-ict-our-new-report
Small File Futures
- Andrew Lison, "Minimal Computing" #https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/server/api/core/bitstreams/d70ec631-91c8-48e7-a94a-6bfe131e03ea/content
- Ger Zielinski, "Reflections on the Proliferation of Online Film Festivals during the COVID-19 Global Pandemic" https://mediastudies.hypotheses.org/2484
- Laura U. Marks, Radek Przedpełski, "Bandwidth Imperialism and Small-File Media" https://post45.org/2021/04/bandwidth-imperialism-and-small-file-media/
- Kris De Decker, "Why We Need a Speed Limit for the Internet" https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/10/can-the-internet-run-on-renewable-energy.html
- Kris De Decker, "Bedazzled by Energy Efficiency" https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2018/01/bedazzled-by-energy-efficiency.html
ICT Engineering Articles
- Anders Andrae, Engineering and Applied Science Letters, "New perspectives on internet electricity use in 2030" https://doaj.org/article/e7852aaee53e4ae8874b39ee23547305
- Lotfi Belkhir and Ahmed Elmeligi, "Assessing ICT global emissions footprint: Trends to 2040 & recommendations" https://smallfile.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/bieser-hilty-assessing-indirect-environmental-effects-2018.pdf
- Simon Hinterholzer and Ralph Hintemann, "Videostreaming: Energy Requirements and CO2 Emissions Background Paper: The Most Important Points in a Nutshell" https://smallfile.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/hinterholzer-and-hintemann-videostreaming-20205-eng.pdf
- Chris Preist, Daniel Schien, and Paul Shabajee, "Evaluating Sustainable Interaction Design of Digital Services: The Case of YouTube" https://smallfile.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/preist-schien-and-shabajee-youtube.pdf
- Renée Obringer, B. Rachunok, D. Maia-Silva, M. Arbabzadeh, R. Nateghi, K. Madani, "The overlooked environmental footprint of increasing Internet use" https://smallfile.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/obringer-et-al.-videoconferencing.pdf
- Norberto Patrignani and Diane Whitehouse, "Slow Tech: a quest for good, clean and fair ICT" https://schiaffonati.faculty.polimi.it/CE/Patrignani%202014.pdf
AI, Blockchain, and Crypto-art
- Jesse Dodge, FACCT, 2022, "Measuring the Carbon Intensity of AI in Cloud Instances" https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3531146.3533234#abstract
- Alexandra Sasha Luccioni, Yacine Jernite, and Emma Strubell, FACCT, 2024, "Power Hungry Processing: Watts Driving the Cost of AI Deployment?" https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3630106.3658542
- Climate Action Against Disinformation Network, "Small language models (SLMs): A cheaper, greener route into AI" https://foe.org/news/ai-threat-report/
- Karen Hao, MIT Technology Review (2019), "Training a single AI model can emit as much carbon as five cars in their lifetimes" https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/06/06/239031/training-a-single-ai-model-can-emit-as-much-carbon-as-five-cars-in-their-lifetimes/
- Alexandra Luccioni, Alexandre Lacoste, and Victor Schmidt., "Estimating Carbon Emissions of Artificial Intelligence" https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9123463
- Memo Akten, Flash Art, 2021., "Toward a New Ecology of Crypto-Art: A Hybrid Manifesto" https://flash---art.com/2021/02/episode-v-towards-a-new-ecology-of-crypto-art/
- Climate Action Against Disinformation Network, "Artificial Intelligence Threats to Climate Change" https://foe.org/news/ai-threat-report/
Small-File Aesthetics
- Laura U. Marks, "Video haptics and erotics" https://www.sfu.ca/~lmarks/downloads/files/Marks%20Video%20Haptics.pdf
- Hito Steyrel, "In Defense of the Poor Image" https://www.e-flux.com/journal/10/61362/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/
Publications
- Stephen Makonin, Laura U. Marks, Radek Przedpełski, Ramy El Mallah, Alejandro Rodriguez-Silva, "A Holistic End-To-End Model to Calculate the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media" https://limits.pubpub.org/pub/calc/release/1
- Dawn Walker and Yani Kong, "Reimagining Networks: Speculative Thinking for Low-Carbon Research Networks"
- Laura U. Marks and Radek Przedpełski, "The Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media: Problems, Calculations, Solutions" https://www.sfu.ca/~lmarks/downloads/files/Marks%20and%20Przedpełski,%20The%20Carbon%20Footprint%20of%20Streaming%20Media.pdf
- Laura U. Marks, "Large-File Streaming: An Unsustainable Pleasure"
- Laura U. Marks, "A Survey of ICT Engineering Research Confirms Streaming Media’s Carbon Footprint" https://mediaenviron.org/post/1116-a-survey-of-ict-engineering-research-confirms-streaming-media-s-carbon-footprint-by-laura-u-marks
- Laura U. Marks, Stephen Makonin, Alejandro Rodriguez-Silva, and Radek Przedpełski, "Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media" https://www.sfu.ca/content/dam/sfu/sca/Streaming-Carbon-Footprint/Tackling%20the%20Carbon%20Footprint%20of%20Streaming%20Media%20report,%20bibliography%20updated%20September%202022.pdf
- Yani Kong, "The Digital Turn: Keeping Art Accessible in a Time of Crisis" https://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/the-digital-turn/
- Laura U. Marks, "Small-File Movies: Saving the planet, one pixel at a time" https://millenniumfilmjournal.com/product/mfj-71-72/
- Laura U. Marks, "Streaming video, a surprising link between pandemic and climate crisis" https://www.harun-farocki-institut.org/en/2020/04/16/streaming-video-a-link-between-pandemic-and-climate-crisis-journal-of-visual-culture-hafi-2/
- Laura U. Marks, "Let’s Deal with the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media" https://online.ucpress.edu/afterimage/article/47/2/46/110729/Let-s-Deal-with-the-Carbon-Footprint-of-Streaming
- Yani Kong, "Tiny movies at the end of the world" https://www.sfu.ca/sca/events---news/news/Tiny-Movies-at-the-End-of-the-World.html
- Radek Przedpełski, "The environmental cost of binge-watching" https://dublin.sciencegallery.com/latest/foc-tzpbp-36glj-zetke
Panels, Roundtables, Symposia, and Talks
- Azadeh Emadi, Joseph Malbon, Laura U. Marks, and Radek Przedpełski, "Bending the possible (one pixel at a time): Small-file ecomedia for the Anthropocene" https://isea2022.isea-international.org/event/online-presentations/
- Laura U. Marks and Radek Przedpełski, "Small-File as Ahuman Life. Sustainable Experimental Ecomedia for the Anthropocene"
- Yani Kong, "Examining the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media in Online Teaching and Learning"
- Laura U. Marks and Radek Przedpełski, "A Contribution to the Critique of the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media. Earth’s Carrying Capacity as a Regime of Capital in the Postdigital Age"
- Yani Kong (chair), Laura U. Marks, Radek Przedpełski, and Hân Phạm, "Immaterial Material: The Carbon Footprint of Online Teaching and Learning"
- Laura U. Marks and Stephen Makonin, "Let’s Get Together with a Small Carbon Footprint" https://vimeo.com/556302838
- Laura U. Marks and Radek Przedpełski, "Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media: A Transdisciplinary Laboratory for New Media Informatics"
- Laura Marks, "Streaming media populate the ether and heat the planet"
- Yani Kong, "Pushing Against the Substitution Effect: Best Practices for Carbon Neutral Streaming in Remote Teaching and Learning"
- Laura U. Marks, Joseph Clark, Jason Livingston, and Lucas Hilderbrand, "Let’s Tackle the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media"
Lectures by Dr. Laura U. Marks
- European Network for Cinema and Media Studies, "On Greening Film Festivals" https://www.sfu.ca/content/dam/sfu/sca/Streaming-Carbon-Footprint/Marks,%20The%20Small%20FIle%20Media%20Festival,%20SCMS%202022.pdf
- Laura U. Marks, "Compression politics and aesthetics: Mitigating the carbon footprint of streaming media" https://www.sfu.ca/content/dam/sfu/sca/Streaming-Carbon-Footprint/Marks,%20The%20Small%20FIle%20Media%20Festival,%20SCMS%202022.pdf
- Sustainability Dialogue, "Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media"
- keynote talk, British Association for American Studies, "Streaming Media, Online Conferences, and the Jevons Paradox"
- Keynote, keynote talk at “Dark Eden,” Sixth International Conference on Transdisciplinary Imaging at the Intersections between Art, Science, and Culture, "Seeing in the dark"
- keynote talk at NxtMedia 2020, Trondheim, Norway, "The Small File Media Festival"
Interviews and Media with Laura Marks
- Laura U. Marks, Mada, "Unworkshoppable cinema: A visit to the 11th Cairo Video Festival" https://www.madamasr.com/en/2025/02/20/feature/culture/unworkshoppable-cinema-a-visit-to-the-11th-cairo-video-festival/
- The Walrus, "Ask an Online Media Expert: What’s the Carbon Footprint of the Internet?" interview on carbon impact of streaming media with Carolina de Ryk, Daybreak North, CBC radio
- Daybreak North, CBC Radio, "interview on carbon impact of streaming media with Carolina de Ryk, "
- podcast interview with Stephanie Osmanski, Brightly.eco, "Is Our Netflix Obsession Harming the Planet? This Is the Environmental Impact of Streaming"
- interview in Alex Estorick’s series “The Uncanny Valley,” Flash Art, "Media Genealogies and Haptic Geographies" https://flash---art.com/2021/10/laura-u-marks-alex-estorick/
- British Association for American Studies 2021 Annual Conference, "Laura U. Marks, interview with Michael Hedges on the carbon footprint of streaming media"
- Interview on Roz Skillen’s podcast Catch Yerself On, "Cinema, touch, and the climate movement" https://www.stitcher.com/show/catch-yerself-on/episode/cinema-touch-and-the-climate-movement-with-laura-u-marks-82122405
- Op-ed, The Vancouver Sun, "Streaming video is overheating the planet" https://vancouversun.com/opinion/laura-marks-and-stephen-makonin-streaming-video-is-overheating-the-planet
- CBC Radio Vancouver, "interview with Gloria Macarenko on the carbon impact of streaming media and the Small File Media Festival"
- Living Lab Initiative, SFU Sustainability, "Examining the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media in Online Teaching and Learning"
SFMF in the Media
- Dhaka Tribune, "BRAC University hosts ‘Small File Media Festival Bangladesh’ showcasing eco-friendly short films" https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/dhaka/368923/brac-university-hosts-%E2%80%98small-file-media-festival
- Yasmine Whaley-Kalaora, Recuardo, "A Haunting Resolve: Small-file Media and States of Resolution" https://reissue.pub/articles/a-haunting-resolve-small-file-media-and-states-of-resolution
- V. S. Wells, Yani Kong, and Joey Malbon, The Georgia Straight, "Small File Media Festival Thinks Outside the Streaming Box" https://www.straight.com/movies/small-file-media-festival-thinks-outside-streaming-box
- John Thomson, Galleries West, "Small File Media Festival with Dr. Yani Kong" https://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/small-file-media-festival/
- Vicki Duong, The Georgia Straight, "Small File Media Festival Is Celebrating Five Years of Sustainable Cinema" https://www.straight.com/movies/small-file-media-festival-is-celebrating-five-years-of-sustainable-cinema
- Yani Kong and Jeremy Ratt, North by Northwest hosted by Margaret Gallagherr, "Small File Media Festival interview" https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-43-north-by-northwest/clip/16101085-bc-on-screen-small-file-media-festival
- E-Flux Film, "Small File Media Festival Fourth Edition" https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/570943/fourth-edition/
- Stephanie Osmanski, Brightly.eco, "Is Our Netflix Obsession Harming the Planet? This Is the Environmental Impact of Streaming podcast interview"
