It's Not Easy Streaming Green The welcome drop in emissions and other environmentally damaging activity during the various COVID lockdowns has received a lot of media attention lately. However decades of environmental damage does not evaporate after spending a few weeks indoors and not sitting in traffic. Even with the economy at a temporary standstill, we have still been setting new records for dumping carbon into the atmosphere. At the same time, video-streaming volumes have ballooned during the lockdown, fueled by the launch of new services in 2020. But there hasn’t been much conversation about the environmental impact of streaming, especially given the huge uptick in usage that we’ve seen during the lockdown. Growth trends show streaming will eclipse linear TV as the primary consumption method for video content. But is this another one of those developments where convenience translates to a step backwards for the planet?