I Went Low-Fi To Tell The Story Of High Definition Carbon Emissions For Earth Day

In human history, we’ve never streamed, zoomed, and scrolled more than right now. With 10 million metric tons of CO2 per year created by YouTube alone, it represents a rapidly growing energy footprint.

Cue ‘Earth Definition’, a film that shines a light on the scale of carbon emissions caused by online streaming. The initiative asks online video streamers to change their streaming settings from HD down to SD and save 75% of their streaming energy and carbon.

When I heard the Earth Definition idea it grabbed me immediately. It’s so simple; stream at SD and reduce your energy draw and carbon output. Straight off the bat, I knew this film needed a low-fi style. I drew inspiration from early 3D wireframe games like Combat Zone that I remember playing as a kid at our local arcade. I felt that giving the film a naive prototype line-art style would give viewers that sense of optimism you get when an idea is cool and new. It’s the start of something, of asking less of our pixels for the sake of the planet.