Recently, Polite Worldwide, a Los Angeles-based fashion brand founded during the pandemic, announced a partnership with nonprofit organizations Lonely Whale and Coral Gardeners to call on people to protect marine wildlife by publishing NFT artwork.
The artwork capsule series, called "Impact Star," has 24 digital artworks priced from $100 to $1,000.
Impact Star
Tavia Azzinaro, co-founder of Polite Worldwide, told WWD: "We are interested in the NFT space and want to get more opportunities in the digital community to attract more consumers to interact with us. This partnership with Lonely Whale and Coral Gardeners balances our efforts in this area with investing in environmental support projects. ”
As the heat of NFT discussion continues to rise, more and more fashion brands, artists and practitioners in related fields have jumped on this fast-moving, emerging technology train. While expanding brand influence and seizing the digital virtual market, this new way calls on people to care about climate change and ecological protection, and practice their own sustainable fashion reform. But in fact, behind NFTs is an environmental crisis that people are unaware of.
March 11 this year is known as "NFT's Circle Breaking Day.". On the same day, Christie was able to sell its first "pure digital art collection" for $69 million, Everydays: The First 5000 Days by digital artist Beeple.
Everydays:The First 5000 Days
According to market tracker NonFungible.com, total global NFT sales exceeded $11.9 billion in November, 128 times more than the same period a year ago.
While NFTs are considered the future of art curation, the opportunities presented by digital artworks have also made it an inevitable choice for the fashion industry to connect with the NFT ecosystem. But are these digital assets, made of code that don't seem to require any physical materials, really as environmentally friendly as people think?
Just as supply chains and modes of transport need to be considered when assessing the sustainability of fashion products, the carbon emissions calculation of NFT artworks also needs to be considered from the entire creative process and distribution channels. Since the vast majority of NFTs are created on Ethereum, they also use the same amount of carbon emissions as they would need to mine cryptocurrencies. It is estimated that every time an NFT is created and sold, it produces a carbon footprint of 48 kilograms of carbon dioxide, which is about 14 times the amount needed to mail art prints.
After learning about the carbon emissions from NFTs, Austrian architect and artist Chris Precht, known for his "eco-architecture", has publicly announced his departure from the NFT field.
Chris Precht originally planned to produce and release 300 NFT works. But after estimating, he found that for every 100 NFT artworks created, he used the equivalent of the electricity a person spent living in Europe for 20 years. He explains: "Initially, like a child, I was full of curiosity and love for this art form. But after learning about the pollution it caused, I was shocked, frustrated, and full of guilt. Because as an NFT artwork creator, I also have a certain responsibility for environmental pollution. ”
French artist Joanie Lemercier, one of the first to explore the environmental impact of NFTs, invited digital engineers to calculate the carbon emissions generated by his NFTs and published the results on the CryptoArt website. The calculations show that the power consumed for every 10-second video encryption is higher than the entire studio combined over the past two years. Joanie Lemercier said shelved future NFT art release plans, saying: "Such a large carbon footprint makes even considering NFT production plans seem crazy." ”
NFT by Joanie Lemercier
Polyblock Platonic solids
In June, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Burterin spoke about blockchain technology and energy consumption at the StartmeupHK Festival 2021 Technology Conference. He said that as Ethereum moves towards 2.0, the node verification method will be converted from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (Pos), a change that will hopefully significantly reduce the energy consumption required for Ethereum to run. He said: "Although Ethereum's PoS technology is still in its infancy and has not undergone many real-world tests like the current PoW mechanism, after Ethereum's complete transformation to PoS, energy consumption is expected to be reduced by more than 10,000 times." ”
Romanian gram Evobits crypto farm
According to Digiconomist, a cryptocurrency sustainability tracking platform, Ethereum upgraded 2.0 to improve energy efficiency by about 2,000 times, which means that energy consumption is reduced by about 99.95%.
On November 17, Trenton Van Epps, coordinator of the Ethereum Foundation's ecological construction, tweeted that according to his personal estimates, Ethereum will end the PoW consensus mechanism in 3 to 6 months, calling on Ethereum "miners" to be prepared for this.
At the same time as technological innovation, digital art platforms and artists who are aware of the pressure that NFT works put on the environment have also made corresponding initiatives to balance the carbon emissions generated by works by investing in renewable energy and environmental protection agencies.
Their initiatives have also been endorsed by environmental groups. Joseph Pallant, founder of Climate Blockchain, said: "I think in the next year and a half, the carbon emissions of NFTs will no longer be a problem. Reducing the impact by carbon offsetting is another way forward, and instead of just saying, 'Ah, I'm going to back off, don't touch it,' it's better to dive in and think about what needs to be done for your conscience. ”WWD
Written by Usasa
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