Hot takes are making the planet hotter (and we can do something about it) 🌍
Why professional creators need to make sustainable content publishing a priority
Every day, people publish more content on the Internet than what all of human society published in the first few thousand years of existence. Yet, as we publish all our hot takes and memes and newsletters and AI-generated videos, even professional publishers and content creators rarely think about the natural resources it takes to publish and preserve our content.
That needs to change. Like professionals in any other industry, content publishers need to consider how their practices affect our planet. We need to evaluate our tools and our practices to seek new ways not just to make quality digital content creation more efficient but also better for the planet.
TLDR: We need to find ways to keep the heat in our hot takes from cooking the Earth.
The current impact of all our hot takes
There are no research studies that have looked at hot takes specifically. Mostly because it's impossible to identify which of the gazillion posts on the Internet are hot takes and which are not. As much as I'd love to see researchers attempt to train an AI bot to identify hot takes (I mean just think about how much snarky fun that training data would have in it 😂), looking at broader categories of digital consumption is probably the best way to measure the impact of online publishing.
As I suspected, the numbers from research studies vary. This 2024 study from Nature found that the "global average user consumes annually 3230 h of digital content" and by their calculations, digital content consumption could be "approximately 40% of the per capita carbon budget consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 °C." That means half of the amount of carbon budgeted per person on Earth currently consists of content like cat memes, TikTok videos, MMORPGs, AI-generated slop, and yes, hot takes.
Other recentish studies have looked at data center energy use as another way to measure digital consumption, and they found that data centers currently use around 2-3% of the world's power supply. That might not seem like a lot, and there definitely are other industries that are having a negative impact. However, another study showed that data center energy consumption is increasing by 9% year over year — a percentage that will likely increase even more as AI tools become more common. That same project concluded that the cloud is currently consuming more energy than than the entire airline industry worldwide. Just imagine how many hot takes we're generating that data center energy consumption is higher than burning jet fuel. It's nuts!
We need to change how we think of content sustainability
Digital publishers do currently talk about sustainable content creation. The word "sustainable" though comes up when discussing publishing schedules or business models. Honestly, publishing content in world where people have more content choices than they have ever had in human history is stupid hard! When you're competing to get people's attention with videos of celebrities making fools of themselves or cute animals in tiny hats, there is nothing wrong with investing effort into figuring out ways to keep publishing and building an audience.
However, I think we need to consider sustainability for the Earth as an extension of those goals. If our potential audience members are constantly relocating from climate change-induced weather disasters, then no one is going to have time for all the hot takes we create. Also, there ARE things content professionals can incorporate into their content practices right now to help reduce the impact of our content publishing.
Sustainable practices you can implement now
Switch to newer file formats for images
Publishing is all about routine, and it's really hard to break routines. But if you're in the habit of using older image formats like JPG or PNG, it's time to switch to WebP or AVIF. Prioritize using tools that support these newer formats as much as you can.
Be picky about video and animations
Videos and animations, by far, are one of the biggest content contributors to carbon emissions. If you have a website, see if there is a way to reduce any reliance you have on video or animations*. At the very least, remove autoplay. Your users will thank you for that.
(*Hi Video Creators! I know you're rolling your eyes right now. I'll be honest. There are not a lot of options for you to make video publishing greener unless you happen to be hosting your own content. That doesn't mean you can't advocate for greener practices, like letting people choose their own video resolution, on your chosen platform. Also, if won't bankrupt you, think about letting people download your stuff instead of streaming it. It's a little bit better for the planet.)
Find a greener hosting service
Some hosting companies and data centers incorporate more sustainable energy sources like solar and wind into their power structures. If you have a self-hosted website, give them your business! The Green Web Foundation has a directory of greener hosts you should take a look at.
Use AI thoughtfully
AI is a pretty resource-heavy technology tool. It definitely has benefits. We wouldn't have the Wagtail AI project if we didn't think so. Just think carefully about what tasks are actually worth the carbon tradeoff, especially if you're going to use them on a large scale. If you keep having to revise the AI's work, that's a big sign it's not worth it.
Support content tools pursuing greener practices
You can't make your content practices greener if the tools you're using don't support sustainable practices. Pick out ones that do. Wagtail CMS, for my shameless-plug-example, supports greener image formats, provides more sustainable code practices for displaying images, and has a guide on how to make your CMS project more sustainable. Look for tools with similar goals and resources.
Choose the dark side
Support and use dark mode as much as you can to help reduce the energy expenditure from screens. Using dark mode with an OLED screen can result in 20%-40% energy savings.
Keep things clean
Other people may not know how messy your digital files, but the Earth sure does. Data storage definitely contributes to emissions, so you can do our planet a huge favor just by cleaning up your files on a regular basis. Wagtail CMS has a useful feature showing content creators which images in their archives are not being used. Check your content tools to see if they have similar features.
Archive or delete old content
I saved this idea for last because I know archivists and data hoarders will be howling mad about it. We caution people all the time that the Internet is "forever" and not to publish anything they think they would regret. That may be a good way to encourage people to think before they post. But it also reinforces the idea that everything that has been published needs to remain published forever and ever and ever. And it really doesn't.
You CAN unpublish and archive old content that's no longer useful. If the content is just collecting virtual dust and only bots are reading it, then perhaps it's time to move it or (dare I say), delete it. You won't wreck your SEO if you archive thoughtfully, and the Earth will ultimately be cooler if more content publishers can be like Elsa and let it go.
The future of hot takes
There is hope though that we can reduce the impact all of these hot takes and other digital content are having on our planet. The same Nature study I mentioned earlier suggested that we could reduce the impact of digital media consumption by almost 75% if we switched data centers to more sustainable power sources. As content professionals, we should advocate for that while also making our own routines more sustainable.
I mean just imagine how extra-hot our takes could be when they're directly fueled by the thermonuclear rays of the sun. I think that would be wicked awesome, and I can't wait to see it. ☀️
