Switzerland Today
Greetings from Bern!
Is music streaming killing the climate? Well, a Swiss study found that Luis Fonsi’s song Despacito consumed as much electricity in less than a year as Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic combined. What can you do? Read on.
In the news: Members of Pussy Riot, an anti-Kremlin feminist punk band, say they were temporarily detained in Bern last night for spraying anti-war graffiti on a wall.
- It is not yet clear whether criminal charges will be brought, said a spokeswoman for Bern cantonal police. That’s at the discretion of the property owner. The band (two members of which are pictured) are set to play in Rubigen, just outside the Swiss capital, tonight as part of a European tour.
- Swiss legislation is lagging behind in the fight against money laundering and “seldom anticipates developments at international level”, the Swiss Federal Audit Office has warned. It points in particular to the slowness of courts in dealing with economic crimes cases and “the low dissuasive effect of criminal sanctions and legal costs”, since companies pay a maximum amount of CHF5 million ($5.2 million).
- Fears of an electricity shortage in Switzerland appear to have had a positive effect on the expansion of solar energy. The Swiss Federal Office of Energy expects the market to grow by around 50% in 2022. Solar energy systems supplied 6.5% of the electricity required in Switzerland in the first half of this year.
More
“Is music streaming killing the climate?” That’s the question asked by researchers in Switzerland who looked at CO2 emissions associated with streaming and teleworking.
It’s the hot topic of the moment: how can we reduce our electricity consumption, whether to cut our bills or to reduce our use of energy sources? A studyExternal link published yesterday by the Institute of Computer Science of the University of Zurich provides several answers.
The authors of the study estimate that digital technology generates 3% of the CO2 emitted, according to a reportExternal link on the survey in Le Temps newspaper. They looked at several online services: video and audio streaming, newspapers and books, and teleworking tools.
Video streaming – whether generated by services such as YouTube and Netflix or platforms delivering porn – uses 80% of the world’s bandwidth. According to the researchers, one hour of video generates 56g of CO2: 28g are attributable to terminals (computers, phones), 21g to home modems and routers, 6g to telecommunication networks and less than 1g to data centres. But this varies greatly from country to country and from energy source to energy source: in Sweden the total figure is 3g of CO2 per hour for video streaming, in France it is 10g and in Germany 76g (there is no figure for Switzerland). To transmit data, the fastest networks are those that emit the least CO2: 2g per hour for fibre optics, 4g for a traditional copper line, 5g for 5G, 13g for 4G and 90g for 3G.
So how can you reduce your consumption? The study authors recommend watching videos on small screens, in a resolution that is not the highest, and to favour the fastest connections. “Ultimately, the most significant influence the consumer can have is to reduce their own consumption,” they wrote. As for service providers, they should use renewable energy sources, increase their energy efficiency […] and stop giving users every incentive to watch videos, for example by immediately starting the next one.
The researchers note that with 4.6 billion streams worldwide at the time of the study (eight billion today), Luis Fonsi’s song Despacito consumed as much electricity in less than a year as Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic combined.
How can this situation be improved? It’s not realistic to recommend a return to CDs, the authors of the study note. It’s better to encourage consumers, when they are only listening to a song, not to display it on video. This is because audio accounts for only a tenth of the amount of data compared to video. “Downloading music instead of streaming it can also reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but this doesn’t seem to be a realistic option today,” the experts note, somewhat resignedly.
Former US Open winner Stan Wawrinka hinted that he was getting closer to hanging up his racket after being forced to retire mid-match during his opening-round contest at the hardcourt major last night.
It was the sixth straight defeat for the 37-year-old three-time major champion, who lifted his last grand slam trophy in New York in 2016 (pictured).
“I’m getting closer to the end. That’s for sure. It’s a reality,” Wawrinka said. “I was injured for more than a year. It took me a while to feel much better physically and tennis-wise. I still love the game and want to compete a bit longer before stopping.”
Wawrinka returned to the tennis circuit in March after over a year on the sidelines following two surgeries on his left foot. But he has failed to reprise his old form and suffered a slew of first-round exits at tournaments. However, he hasn’t given up hope yet.
“I’ll never be able to play as well as I did in my career, because I’m getting older. But I believe that I still have some good and big results in me, and that’s why I’m going to keep on fighting a little bit.”
With Wawrinka’s 41-year-old compatriot Roger Federer also in the twilight of his career, who will fly the flag for Switzerland next?
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
