this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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[–] gon@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If it's worth doing at all, it's worth doing a little bit.

I believe you're referring to iPhone's clean energy charging feature. Here's my question: if you can use clean energy, why wouldn't you? It might make very little difference to the environment, but a little difference is still a difference.

Still, using ad-blockers is really not like that iPhone feature:

  1. That feature relies on the grid itself, meaning it's useless for a lot of people that have basically no clean energy where they live, while ad-blockers can be useful to anyone using the internet.
  2. It may be to the user's detriment, while ad-blockers improve user experience.
  3. It's device dependent, whereas ad-blockers are available to virtually everyone, not just iPhone users.
  4. Ad-blockers can be combined with clean energy charging.

The impact ad-blockers can have on the environment is similar to iPhone's clean energy charging in the same way a healthy diet is similar to eating a carrot. Yes, on the surface level they do just reduce your consumption of fossil fuel-generated energy, but ad-blockers reduce your energy consumption overall, not just trade it for green energy (that still requires tons of fossil fuels to be burned).

Much love,
gon

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

if you can use clean energy, why wouldn't you?

Because, in this case, it can be incredibly inconvenient. It's just another bullshit marketing ploy from Apple.

I don't understand the rest of your comment.

Should you use ad blockers? Yes, absolutely. Is "saving the environment" a legitimate reason? I would argue no.

Sincerely,

xoxo helenslunch