The Benefits of Ad Blockers: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

In today's digital world, we are constantly bombarded with online advertisements. Online, we experience them through YouTube, streaming TV, social media, websites and more. As well as disrupting the tasks we were doing, these adverts slow down the webpages we want to read, and consume energy. As our time spent online increases, we are becoming increasingly exposed to higher amounts of online advertising.

Currently, the average person is awake for 16 hours a day, with a second source estimating we spend six hours and 40 minutes a day online. This equates to nearly 40% of our awake hours spent online.

From banner ads to video pop-ups, these ads can not only be intrusive and distracting, but they also have a significant impact on our energy consumption and carbon footprint. This is where ad blockers come in — these powerful tools can help reduce your environmental impact in surprising ways.

Why Should We Block Adverts In The First Place?

1) Improved Privacy and Security:

Ad networks often track user behaviour and collect personal data to serve targeted ads, which can be prevented using an ad blocker. Additionally, ad blockers can block malicious ads that may contain malware or viruses.

2) Faster Page Load Times:

Loading webpages with adverts and the associated scripts/resources can significantly slow down webpage loading. Using an advert blocker removes these elements, resulting in faster and more efficient browsing.

3) Reduced Data Usage:

Adverts consume bandwidth; by blocking adverts, you have more data to spend on more useful things.

4) Better User Experience:

Adverts can be intrusive, disruptive, and detract from the content you're trying to view. Using an ad blocker helps to provide a cleaner, less cluttered browsing experience, which may improve focus and productivity when consuming online content.

5) Environmental Benefits:

Energy, often generated from none renewables sources, causes emissions, through blocking ads you can reduce the carbon footprint associated with the online advertising ecosystem.

What The Research Has To Say?

When you visit a website, each ad that loads requires additional processing power and data transfer from the server hosting the ad. This extra energy usage adds up quickly, especially on websites with multiple ads or resource-intensive video ads.

A report by The Global Action Plan (page 4) said that, an estimated 1% of total energy consumption on this planet is used in the process of serving online ads, with many being pointless due to the nature of the auction systems. The same report states that, advertising now adds an estimated 32% to the carbon footprint of every person in the UK.

This energy usage doesn't just impact your personal device: it also contributes to the overall energy demands of the internet infrastructure. Data centres and network equipment required to deliver these ads consume massive amounts of electricity, much of which is generated from fossil fuels.

One study delved into energy and how consumption would be reduced if everyone in the United States used an open-source ad blocker. Their findings found that over 36 Americans lives per year would be saved.

The same study, also found that out of the three ad blocker extensions tested, AdBlock+, Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin, all were able to reduce the time it took a webpage to load. uBlock Origin, which came out the best, was found to have the potential to save the average global Internet user more than 100 hours annually.

Khan Awais Khan, who led a presentation on the Impact of Ad Blockers on Computer Power Consumption, collated some findings from other researchers. On slide 16, it stated that browsing without an ad blocker resulted in 60-70% higher power consumption compared to using ad blockers like AdBlock Plus and uBlock Origin Lite. Furthermore, AdBlock Plus and uBlock Origin Lite reduced power consumption by up to 35-40% across various websites, with Dailymotion and Cricbuzz showing the most significant reductions.

Slide 35, concluded that ad-blockers like uBlock Origin and Brave's built-in ad-blocker reduce power consumption and improve system performance. Additionally, browsers with built-in ad blockers (e.g., Brave, Librewolf) are more energy-efficient than third-party ad blockers, reducing power consumption by up to 44%.

To Conclude

Making a Difference, One Ad-Free Page at a Time While the environmental impact of a single ad block may seem small, the cumulative effect can be substantial. As more people adopt ad blocking technology, the reduced energy demands and emissions from the online advertising industry could have a significant positive impact on the environment.

So, the next time you're browsing the web, consider adding an ad blocker or utilising your browser settings. By taking this simple step, you can do your part to reduce your carbon footprint and contribute to a more sustainable digital future.