The billionaires to be once again claim technology will save us. In a interview Published Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that by the end of this decade, he expects we all will have access to a pair of virtual reality glasses that make us feel like we are teleporting to other people’s homes and hanging outThat, in turn, could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from travel.
‘Obviously, there will be cars and planes and so on. But the more we can teleport, not only do we eliminate personal commuting and things that are kind of annoying for us individually, but I think that’s better for society and the planet in general, ”Zuckerberg told the Information .
Worldwide, the transit sector is one of the largest contributors to the climate crisis, and in the US, pollution from the transit sector is the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in the US. There is no doubt that that must change.
But will virtual reality glasses help us reduce CO2 emissions? Could be. Studies of greenhouse gas emissions from VR technology are limited, but it is true that the CO2 emissions associated with an individual call on Zuckerberg’s future smart glasses may be lower than those of, say, a flight across the country. At this point, however, we don’t have enough information to be sure.
Video conferencing already [reduces travel-related carbon emissions] to a limited extent, but I don’t think anyone can say in advance if VR will be cool enough to make people forgo leisure travel. If it replaces business travel and meetings, it will be a net positive, “Jonathan Koomey, an energy and climate researcher who runs a sustainable IT consultancy, wrote in an email, although he added that” there are so many unknowns about it are that it is difficult to say anything definitive. “
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VR is also not a substitute for in-person jobs that require face-to-face interactions and work, from construction to food service. The millions of people working in that industry will still commute. To make a big dent in business travel, VR technology would likely need to be used quite extensively in other industries. And as for traveling for fun, Koomey doesn’t think it has much of a chance.
“I doubt people will choose to use VR instead of going on a tropical vacation,” he said.
Of course not everyone in the world goes on a tropical vacation. Actually, found a recent study Which only 11% of people worldwide traveled by air at all and no more than 4% of the world’s population took international flights. But the global elite, the study found, is flying without surrender. Only 1% of the world’s population was responsible for half of global emissions from commercial flights that year
When flying on planes is bad, taking private jets is much worse. A single PJ flight across the country can yield almost double the full annual greenhouse gas emissions for an average American. But Facebook covered almost $ 3 million in private jet costs for Zuckerberg in 2019, according to federal disclosuresBesides flying for business, Zuckerberg also has one $ 100 million mansion in Hawaii It is difficult to imagine that he would give up trips there to stay at home on the VR headset.
In a way, though, that’s not entirely Zuckerberg’s fault. We cannot expect people of his extreme wealth to simply act in good faith and make personal decisions that are better for our collective future on Earth! In other words, we cannot simply rely on people choosing to buy new, beautiful technologies to solve the climate crisis. The world’s leading climate scientists say we need high levels of government regulation to prevent pollution aviation cruises cars, and other polluting sectors.
However, Zuckerberg has stayed determined anti-regulationBut of course he has to – it’s his job to make Facebook money. Making VR glasses the next big thing could be great for Zuckerberg’s quest to enrich Facebook and himself the companies importance in technologyAnd branding the glasses as green could help him with that.
In all other respects, however, there is little evidence that VR glasses will really do that much. So if Mark Zuckerberg really cares about lowering global warming emissions, maybe he could get started right away more robust solution to fight climate denial, lead the way deniers to advertise lies, and in general not finance them or their events in the first place