Mr Gafar Odubote, an Environmentalist, has called for clean-up of digital waste to reduce rate of greenhouse gas emissions in the environment.
Odubote, Nigerian spokesperson for `Let’s Do It’, an international NGO, made the call in an interview in Lagos on Tuesday.
”Earth Day” which started in 1970, was a unified response to an environment in crisis-oil spills, smog and rivers so polluted, they caught fire.
The first Earth Day is credited to launching the modern environmental movement and is recognised as the planet’s largest civic event.
The NGO’s spokesperson said the campaign for the 2020 Earth day would be done online and centred on the reduction of digital waste which amounted to large source of greenhouse emission.
He referred to digital waste as digital footprints which was generated with excess use of data, server space and energy.
“The 2020 Earth Day with peoples’ inability to go and campaign because of the lockdown, we decided to campaign against digital waste.
“We have observed that human generates much digital waste. Digital waste comprises those wastes we generate when we use digital devices such as personal computers, laptops, tablets and phones.
“Wastes from these devices contribute to the carbon footprints and greenhouse emissions released into the environment.
“Statistics show that about 3.7 per cent of global greenhouse emissions comes from digital devices, so what we are asking people to do is to de-clutter the digital devices,” Odubote said.
According to him, if a person notices that people have duplicates of a particular picture on their phones, they should delete the duplicate files and applications they do not need.
He noted that research had shown that apps not in use generate electricity from digital devices which constituted part of the global greenhouse emissions, eliciting climate change effects.
“The 3.7 per cent of global greenhouse emissions from digital devices is similar to the same amount of greenhouse emissions generated by the airline industry globally.
“So, there are lots of statistics about the danger of digital waste. We have started the campaign two days ago and are encouraging Nigerians to do the digital wastes clean-up.
“There is also statistics on how junk and excessive emails are contributing to the greenhouse gas emissions because they make use of energy, electricity and bandwidths.
“We want people to go to their emails on World Earth Day and free spaces on them, opt out of subscriptions that they do not need to reduce digital waste,’ the environmentalist said.
Odubote said the aim was to commemorate the 2020 Earth Day and sensitise people on the dangers of digital waste and its effects on global greenhouse emissions.
“We are on our phones most times because of the lockdown and movement restrictions, hence, the amount of digital waste we generate is on the increase.
“All the pictures, video sharing and live streaming we do also contribute to some environmental impacts,’’ he said.
Odubote urged people to reduce the rate of digital waste and save environment from greenhouse gas emissions.
Ime N