Not so Virtual Carbon Footprint of an Avatar

As Pais rides his fusion-powered skybike he didn’t think he was creating greenhouse gases in his second life or the real world, but it could be to exist in the metaverse, we create a significant carbon footprint in the real world.

I saw the following in my latest copy of Wired:

According to Julian Bleecker, cofounder of design think tank the Near Future Laboratory, the average Second Life avatar requires 1,248 kilowatt hours of electricity to “exist” for a year — 153 kWh for the servers and 1,095 kWh for your PC. In terms of carbon emissions, that’s roughly the equivalent of driving 1,800 miles in a BMW 750Li.

You can find the write-up they are referring to at the Near Future Lab here

I guess one way to rationalize this (suggested by Dusan this morning was we chatted) is by being in a virtual world we may be avoiding activities using more energy in the real world. For instance, some people are using SL as a virtual meeting place to avoid the cost and expense of traveling to a meeting.

Another option is that Linden Lab could look over at what Google is doing – using/producing green energy to run their server farms – as well as funding, supporting, encouraging sustainable practices elsewhere.