For my sins, I was taken down the rabbit hole of a document called "The Carbon Impact of Web Standards" (no, I'm not linking to it).
Friends, I feel nauseous. I'm getting dumber just leaving this tab open. Does it start with a situated analysis of the potential contribution of web content to overall GHG emissions? Lol, no.
Nor does it start from any estimate of real-world site construction (e.g., via the HTTP Archive).
It's so, so much worse.
I shit you not, the methodology is to load small-ish web pages with *no JS*, totally ignore power use from screens and radios (you know, the big ticket items?), guestimate that the average device uses power like a gaming rig, then do shoddy multiplication.
To what end? To try to extrapolate how much energy `<div>` or `<video>` use, totally ignoring the actually dominant factors.
This is WILD.
It's *fine* to want to do things but don't have much skill. That's great. It's how we all start. But for the love of crom, do *not* suggest wild-ass speculation deserves a working group at an international standards body.
It will not go well.
Aaaaaanyway....
Netflix can now serve 100Gbit/s of video (so something like 12,500 individual 4K streams) with an appliance using 100 watts of power. That’s 8 milliwatts for each 4K stream. Remember that number the next time someone tells you that watching a Netflix show is as bad as driving an SUV or some shit. https://people.freebsd.org/~gallatin/talks/OpenFest2023.pdf
Alex Russell
Marsh Ray
Eaton