A long list of apparently innocuous regular activities lead to emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other climate-changing greenhouse gases.

Driving an automobile and turning a light switch have a clear “carbon footprint” substantially less evident is the damage due to sending an easy text message or opening a bottle of plain water.

Digital footprint
Sending even a brief e-mail is estimated to add about four grammes (0.14 oz) of CO2 equivalent (gCO2e) to the atmosphere.

To place this into perspective, the carbon end product of hitting “send” on 65 emails is on level with driving an average-sized automobile a kilometre (0.6 of a mile).

The perpetrators are those emitted when the equipment was made but also greenhouse gases generated in running the computer, server and routers.

It gets worse when you send an e-mail with a big attachment, which places about 50 gCO2e into the air.

Receiving a junk message even should you not open it’s an environmental impact of 0.3 gCO2e.

Here is something to remember the very next time you type in a non-vital Google enquiry: A web search on an energy-saving notebook makes a footprint of 0.2 gCO2e. On an old desktop computer, it’s 4.5 gCO2e.

It comes at a price of about 0.014 gCO2e.

Store bought bottled water has the emissions attached to it than a glass poured from the faucet. times almost 1,150

From raising the cow which created the milk a big cappuccino comes with a footprint of 235 gCO2e, partially due to the emissions. For a cup of homemade coffee or black tea for which only enough water was boiled, the amount is 21 gCO2e.