Reports Suggest that TV Watching is a Low Carbon Activity

Despite popular belief, reports now claim that watching television is a low carbon leisure activity. In a new report that was just published by Mike Berner Lee, who is the author of How Bad are Bananas?, watching an hour in front of a 42 inch plasma screen will put out a similar amount of carbon as driving about one mile in a very efficient car.

So what does this really mean? Well it means that just one hour spent in front of the tube will result in about 220g of carbon dioxide. Comparing this amount of carbon to other adventurous activities, the TV comparison wins out. People who choose to spend their time traveling will expel about five tonnes of carbon dioxide on a round-the-world trip in an economy class plane. That would equal up to a ton of a lot of hours in front of the TV.

Of course, TV was not the only thing that was analyzed in this study. Food and drink were also given the shake down. While exotic fruits are often considered to be high in emissions due to the transport factor, Mike Lee said that apples from New Zealand were responsible for around 100g of carbon dioxide. This is a relatively low figure due to the use of boats instead of aircraft to transport the apples. Of course, the same cannot be said for all exotic fruits. Most other fruits are transported by way of plane overseas, and this adds up to a lot of carbon. This does not, however, change the fact that fruits are good for you and spending too many hours in front of the TV is bad.