The billionaires we are once again claiming that technology will save us. On a interview published on Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that by the end of this decade, he expects all of us to have access to virtual reality glasses that will allows us to feel like we’re teleporting to other people’s homes and leaving. This could, in turn, help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from travel.
“Obviously, it will continue to be cars and airplanes and everything. But the more we can teleport, we are not personally eliminating displacements and things that are an obstacle for us individually, but I think this is better for society and the planet in general as well, ”Zuckerberg told Information.
Globally, the transit sector is one of the larger contributors to the climate crisis, and in the US, pollution from the transit sector makes up the most of US greenhouse gas emissions. There is no doubt that this needs to change.
But will virtual reality glasses help us reduce carbon emissions? It might be. Studies on the emission of greenhouse gases from VR technology are limited, but it is true that the carbon emissions associated with an individual call in Zuckerberg’s potential smart glasses may be lower than those associated with a plane trip across the country , for example. At the moment, however, we don’t have enough information to know for sure.
“Video conferencing, on the other hand, [reduces travel-related carbon emissions] to some extent, but I don’t think anyone can say in advance whether VR will be cool enough to make people give up leisure travel. If it replaces business trips and meetings, it will be a positive result, “wrote Jonathan Koomey, an energy and climate researcher who runs a sustainable IT consultancy, although he added that” there are so many unknowns about it that it is difficult to say anything definitive. “
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Nor is VR a substitute for personal jobs that require face-to-face interactions and work, from construction to food service. The millions of people employed in this sector will continue to move on a daily basis. To severely hamper business travel, VR technology would likely have to be used widely in other sectors. And when it comes to traveling for fun, Koomey doesn’t think he has much of a chance.
“I doubt that people will choose to use RV instead of going on a tropical vacation,” he said.
Of course, not everyone is taking a tropical vacation. In truth, a recent study found what only 11% of the world population traveled by plane and no more than 4% of the world population flew internationally. But the global elite, the study found, is flying without abandonment. Only 1% of the global population accounted for half of the world’s commercial flight emissions that year.
If flying on airplanes is bad, taking private jets is much worse. A single PJ flight across the country can produce almost double all the annual production of greenhouse gases for an average American. Still with Facebook coverage about $ 3 million at the private jet costs for Zuckerberg in 2019, according to federal disclosures. In addition to flying on business, Zuckerberg also has a $ 100 million mansion in Hawaii. It’s hard to imagine him giving up trips there to stay at home with the VR headset.
In a sense, however, this is not entirely Zuckerberg’s fault. We cannot expect people with their level of 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 depend on people who choose to buy new and sophisticated technologies to fix the climate crisis. The world’s leading climate scientists say we need high levels of government regulation to suppress pollution of aviation, cruises, cars, and other polluting sectors.
Zuckerberg, however, remained firmly anti-regulation. But then, of course, he needs to – his job is to make money from Facebook. Making virtual reality glasses the next big thing could be great for Zuckerberg’s quest to enrich Facebook and himself. the company bet on technology. And marking your glasses as green can help you do that.
In all other senses, however, there is little evidence that virtual reality glasses really do that much. So, if Mark Zuckerberg really cares about reducing the emissions that cause global warming, maybe he could begin ordinary more robust solution to combat climate denial, paving the way for deniers to announce lies, and generally not funding them or your events first of all.