Understanding the text:
Why does streaming have an environmental impact?
Is streaming the only online activity that has an environmental impact? Explain.
Is there anything you can do to limit the environmental impact of streaming and other online activities?
Discuss:
Work with partners and discuss the statements. Do you agree or disagree? Is the question as black and white as the statements suggest?
Streaming is bad for people. Today, we waste too much time in front of devices. It is bad for our minds, it is bad for our bodies, it is bad for the environment. We should log off and go out and do things instead. Think of all we could achieve with all that time on our hands.
Technology only flows in one direction: forwards. Once we made electricity we didn't go back to candles and wood- burning ovens. Once we had cars we didn't go back to horses. Now that we have streaming, we will not go back to linear television. We must figure out how to limit the carbon footprint of the technology without expecting people to stop using it.
Research:
Find out more about the environmental impact of digital technology. Make a factsheet.
Write:
Write a humorous essay about living without digital technology.
Write a dystopian short story about living without digital technology.
Write a speech where you encourage your peers to reduce their reliance on digital technology for the good of the environment.
Research the environmental impact of crypto mining, and write a text where you present the pros and cons of this process.