Digital systems add emissions and save them, and the same technology appears on both sides. An HL answer has to read the ledger rather than pick the entry that suits the argument.
What digital systems add, what they save, what they make possible — and the rebound underneath.
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Adds
- Electricity for data centres
- Emissions from making devices
- Water for cooling
Saves and enables
- Journeys not made
- Buildings heated only when used
- Grids balanced so less is wasted
The entry most answers miss: Variable wind and solar generation cannot be balanced without continuous measurement and control. The grid that renewables need is a digital system, so the two are not opposed.
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Efficiency creates demand. Cheaper streaming means more streaming and cheaper delivery means more deliveries, so a saving per use is not a saving overall.
Real-world examples you can name
Bitcoin and the public blockchain — network live January 2009
A currency with no issuing bank, kept honest by a shared append-only ledger that thousands of computers verify. The proof-of-work method that secures it consumes electricity on the scale of a mid-sized country.
Who it affected: Holders and traders, people in countries with unstable currencies, and everyone affected by the energy used.
Agbogbloshie e-waste site, Accra — scrapyard cleared July 2021
A scrapyard where imported electronics were stripped and cables burned to recover copper, releasing lead and dioxins. It became the standard example of e-waste exported from rich countries to poor ones. Authorities demolished much of the site in 2021; the trade moved rather than stopped.
Who it affected: Workers and nearby residents exposed to heavy metals and smoke.
Global Fishing Watch — launched 2016
Satellite tracking signals from vessels are processed to map fishing activity worldwide and published openly, so protected areas can be policed by anyone with a browser rather than only by patrol boats.
Who it affected: Coastal states without navies, and fleets that relied on not being watched.
Where the large numbers actually are
- Device lifetime, because making a device dominates its footprint and replacing it early repeats that cost.
- Grid balancing, which decides how much generation is wasted across a whole country.
- Building use, since heating and cooling empty space is one of the largest avoidable costs there is.
- Individual behaviour, which is talked about most and measures smallest.
How this is tested — HL asks you to recommend, and the marks go to whoever aims at a large entry rather than a popular one. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 Section B — extended response
- Extended response on climate and technology
- Concepts — systems, change — named explicitly
Paper 3 — the intervention paper
- Recommend a measure for a described situation
- Justify why this entry and not another
The trap: individual behaviour: Advice about switching off devices is popular and measures almost nothing. Aim at device lifetime or grid balancing and say why.
Explain one reason why an efficiency improvement may not reduce total emissions.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Recommend one measure to reduce the climate impact of digital technology, and justify it.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.