About NFTs, Climate and Planting Trees
Art is not the only aspect of landscape photography that potentially suffers from a tight-knit community. Lately, NFTs have been all the buzz on the internet.
What are NFTs?
Non-Fungible Tokens are a form of cryptocurrency that have the promise to hold value without them ever being able to be separated from its creator. Imagine a digital photograph that no-one can pirate.
Of course, this sounds amazing to any photographer in the digital age. Because the bane of our existence are digital pirates ripping our websites and social media accounts if they want a print. And so we create physical prints. But is that really the form for future display of your work? Are we still printing and selling prints and making a living by doing so?
NFTs in the Digital Marketplace
In a completely digital marketplace, such as those in the gaming industry, digital assets are very common. Lootboxes can be opened for random or selected in-game content in order to spice up the gamer’s experience. It gives gamers the opportunity to digitally show off their flair and personality. But there’s one problem. Third-party makers are left out in most of these games. What if anyone could create an enhancement of any digital experience, without them being pirated or plastered with watermarks? This was the promise of NFTs.
How much can you Make with an NFT Photograph?
Eventually photographers got wind of it too. Instead of ordering a print, a customer or fan could now own a unique “digital print” of work of art. Limited edition and digitally signed. I’ve heard of pieces going for 20 ETH. At the time of writing, that’s about 42.586 Euro or more than $ 50k. To the buyer, the work can become worth much more than that. Now that is a lucrative business plan for both buyer and photographer.
The Energy Need for Crypto
The problem that I have with the current incarnation of NFTs is this: the currency for them is crypto, which have to be mined. Mining is the process of researching the “code” for them if you will. This is not an essay about the technicalities of the blockchain, but about the energy it takes to mine them. Depending on the type of crypto currency, the energy cost for a work of digital landscape photograph can reach staggering figures.
According to coinwarz.com [1], a dedicated crypto computer (called a miner) mines at a maximum rate of 750 MH/s. This particular miner has a power requirement of 1350 Watts. In essence: the more energy and video cards you put in, the faster it can mine cryptocurrency such as ETH (Ethereum). If we let it do its thing for 24 hours, the amount of ETH mined in a single day is 0,01703807 at the time of writing.
So how much energy is actually needed to do that? That’s 32.38 kiloWatts per 24 hours. That gives us an energy consumption of 1.349 kWh. Imagine that your image would sell for a realistic 1 ETH. How long would that machine have to run in order to mine this much ETH? And how much energy would that cost? When we divide the needed amount of ETH (1) by the mining rate of 0,01703807 ETH per day, we come to the conclusion that such a machine would have to run for slightly more than 58.69 days. That’s more than 1.9 million Watts of power! That number is roughly the same amount as filling up 2,5 modern Formula 1 cars [2] or running Netflix on a single 65” OLED TV for 45 years straight [3].
Climate Change - Yeah, this Argument Again
Ridiculous numbers and comparisons aside, as landscape photographers, we have to be aware of the effects of climate change, shouldn’t we? After all, without the landscape, there is no such thing as landscape photography. It pains me personally that many immediately see the dollar signs when considering jumping on the NFT bandwagon, without truly considering the environmental cost of doing so. Man-made climate change is not a hoax, nor is it going away anytime soon. And it is fueled by greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2.
Saving the Environment and Getting Rich
Can you have your cake and eat it too? Can you sell your work through NFTs ánd save the environment in the process? Well, if carbon dioxide is the only thing you’re considering, we can calculate how many trees could be planted to offset those carbon emissions. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “a medium growth coniferous or deciduous tree, planted in an urban setting and allowed to grow for 10 years, sequesters 23.2 and 38.0 lbs of carbon, respectively.” That’s the equivalent of “0.060 metric ton CO2 per urban tree planted”. [5]
So how many trees would you have to plant (and allow to grow for 10 years) to offset the carbon emissions from running a 750 MH/s crypto mining rig for close to two months straight? Well, it depends on how that energy is created. The following table is a citation of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from various energy sources [4]. “Lifecycle” means that the production and recycling of the source has been accounted for. So as for photovoltaic panels, their construction costs a bunch of energy, and so does the installation, transportation and eventual disassembly into parts. Some of which get recycled into new panels or batteries.
In the last column, I’ve listed the number of trees needed to be planted to offset a single landscape photograph NFT, sold for 1 ETH, using the mining machine mentioned above.
To conclude, you can have your cake and eat it too, if you make sure your planted trees live at least ten years and you are certain from which power source the crypto miner was fed.
Recommendations
I cannot and will not advise against chasing after potentially big money. Thus I’m not against NFTs. I’m not the kind of guy to judge. But I do expect landscape photographers in particular to at least consider carbon offsetting when minting and selling NFTs. The above table can be used to calculate how many trees are needed to plant in order to sequester those carbon emissions back into the Earth.
As for decent organizations for carbon offsetting, I can recommend the following websites:
Please be aware that carbon offsetting is not useful just by planting a tree. It really does have to reach adulthood in order for this practice to make sense. That’s why it’s perhaps more important to have the forest looked after and having trees replanted should a storm take the saplings.
Also interesting is TenTree, a clothing brand which promises to plant 10 trees for every item purchased. But note that clothing also needs to be produced, which costs energy.
Acknowledgements
Speaking of costing energy, what about those workshops and tours abroad? How do you offset those effects on the landscape? For me, it’s the same story. I put 10% of everything I earn with photography back into such projects. That’s hundreds of trees planted by now and I consider other things in daily life that reduce or eliminate greenhouse gasses. So investments in sustainable energy, choosing a vegan diet for me and my family, and walking instead of driving whenever possible are all part of the plan to reduce. I don’t want this to be about me, though. This article is meant to advice those considering NFTs who care for the future of Earth and its biodiversity.
Contact me if there is a problem with the math or the sources listed. I will do my best to correct it after review.
[2] https://www.buildwithrise.com/stories/how-much-can-new-tv-save-you
[5] https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-calculator-calculations-and-references