The metaverse's hunger for energy must be quantified

Powering the virtual world has the potential to worsen climate change

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20220322 VR headset Shanghai mall.jpg

Children wearing virtual reality headsets play a game at a shopping mall in Shanghai on Jan. 1: there are no serious studies on how much energy will be needed to power metaverse. © VCG/Getty Images

Nina Xiang is the founder of China Money Network, a media platform bridging the Asian and global innovation economy. Her upcoming new book Parallel Metaverses: How the US, China and the Rest of the World Are Shaping Different Virtual Worlds will be released next month.

As you enter the virtual world of the metaverse, your avatar dashes into a forest where every detail of the grass, trees, sky and clouds are realistically rendered in perfect high-definition. You turn around, look up and down, barely noticing as your field of vision instantly shifts in real-time to provide the same perspective as in the real world.

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