Examining the Video Game Industry's Hidden Impacts on Climate Change
Examining the Video Game Industry's Hidden Impacts on Climate Change
Enlarge / Sprinkle water everywhere, and all the [circuit] boards have shrunk...
Getty Images | Aurich Lawson
Amid the stresses of living on a warming planet, playing video games is an escape for billions of people. Whether you're inhaling mystical gadgets in Kirby and the Forgotten Land or traversing Guanajuato in Forza Horizon 5, games provide a digital retreat that fuels our basic need to play. < /p>
Unfortunately, the scale of climate change is such that we will have to rethink nearly every element of global society, including the gaming industry.
Ben Abraham has long thought about the need for this kind of change. Speaking to Ars, Abraham recalled how, as a teenager, the top floor of his parents' Australian split-level house would become a grueling sauna thanks to a combination of the summer sun outside and a Gaming PC (with CRT monitor) bleeding heat inside.
Today, Abraham connects the memory of that warm room with the future of the games. His recent book, Digital Games After Climate Change, summarizes years of research focused on the environmental impact of digital games and includes detailed estimates of the industry's carbon footprint and suggestions on how to do so. what the industry can do to reduce it.
The scale of the problem
Enlarge / In his book, Abraham analyzes the climate impacts of the gaming industry, from development to consumption.
The true magnitude of climate change defies belief. To have any hope of staying below 2°C of warming above pre-industrial levels, we need to reduce our CO2 output by almost 10% every year for decades, and probably even faster. It is the sheer scale of climate change that, some say, causes us to lose sight of the solutions and often misunderstand the real problem.
While comparisons between climate pledges and World War II are generally overused, the scale of the two endeavors is similar. As with World War II, meeting climate commitments may require rapid and near-universal changes in land use and commodity rationing.
Video games (and the hardware they're played on) are closer to frivolous luxury than basic goods. And if we want to avoid talking about rationing these games for the “greater good” of climate change, individual action is not enough. This will require a holistic, industry-wide engagement that recognizes the externalities of game creation and consumption.
Hidden conflict
Games have many hidden and built-in carbon costs that tend to get lost in the game. Powerful computer chips in game consoles, for example, require a range of rare minerals and refined materials whose extraction can be hard on the environment and human life.
Abraham tested the PlayStation 4's APU, the chip that handles nearly all of the console's computing functions. After dissolving a piece of the chip in strong acid, he analyzed the result in equipment at the University of Technology Sydney to analyze its chemical composition. He identified 17 elements that have deep ties to brutal, authoritarian regimes and resource-based, high-conflict economies.
Enlarge / Sprinkle water everywhere, and all the [circuit] boards have shrunk...
Getty Images | Aurich Lawson
Amid the stresses of living on a warming planet, playing video games is an escape for billions of people. Whether you're inhaling mystical gadgets in Kirby and the Forgotten Land or traversing Guanajuato in Forza Horizon 5, games provide a digital retreat that fuels our basic need to play. < /p>
Unfortunately, the scale of climate change is such that we will have to rethink nearly every element of global society, including the gaming industry.
Ben Abraham has long thought about the need for this kind of change. Speaking to Ars, Abraham recalled how, as a teenager, the top floor of his parents' Australian split-level house would become a grueling sauna thanks to a combination of the summer sun outside and a Gaming PC (with CRT monitor) bleeding heat inside.
Today, Abraham connects the memory of that warm room with the future of the games. His recent book, Digital Games After Climate Change, summarizes years of research focused on the environmental impact of digital games and includes detailed estimates of the industry's carbon footprint and suggestions on how to do so. what the industry can do to reduce it.
The scale of the problem
Enlarge / In his book, Abraham analyzes the climate impacts of the gaming industry, from development to consumption.
The true magnitude of climate change defies belief. To have any hope of staying below 2°C of warming above pre-industrial levels, we need to reduce our CO2 output by almost 10% every year for decades, and probably even faster. It is the sheer scale of climate change that, some say, causes us to lose sight of the solutions and often misunderstand the real problem.
While comparisons between climate pledges and World War II are generally overused, the scale of the two endeavors is similar. As with World War II, meeting climate commitments may require rapid and near-universal changes in land use and commodity rationing.
Video games (and the hardware they're played on) are closer to frivolous luxury than basic goods. And if we want to avoid talking about rationing these games for the “greater good” of climate change, individual action is not enough. This will require a holistic, industry-wide engagement that recognizes the externalities of game creation and consumption.
Hidden conflict
Games have many hidden and built-in carbon costs that tend to get lost in the game. Powerful computer chips in game consoles, for example, require a range of rare minerals and refined materials whose extraction can be hard on the environment and human life.
Abraham tested the PlayStation 4's APU, the chip that handles nearly all of the console's computing functions. After dissolving a piece of the chip in strong acid, he analyzed the result in equipment at the University of Technology Sydney to analyze its chemical composition. He identified 17 elements that have deep ties to brutal, authoritarian regimes and resource-based, high-conflict economies.
![Sprinkle water everywhere, and all the [circuit] boards have shrunk...](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/crt-ocean-games-climate-800x450.jpg)
Enlarge / Sprinkle water everywhere, and all the [circuit] boards have shrunk...
Getty Images | Aurich Lawson
Enlarge / In his book, Abraham analyzes the climate impacts of the gaming industry, from development to consumption.
The true magnitude of climate change defies belief. To have any hope of staying below 2°C of warming above pre-industrial levels, we need to reduce our CO2 output by almost 10% every year for decades, and probably even faster. It is the sheer scale of climate change that, some say, causes us to lose sight of the solutions and often misunderstand the real problem.
