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Googling leaves a carbon footprint

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google_logo.jpgAccording to research by
Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross, two Google search
generates the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling water for a cup
of tea.

Ironically, searching the phrase "how big is my carbon
footprint?" produces 7g of CO2 whilst boiling a kettle generates around
15g. Wissner-Gross said: Google operates huge data centres around the
world that consume a great deal of power". With over 200 million
internet searches per day its not a surprise that he suggested: "a
Google search has a definite environmental impact."

The IT
industry has been notorious for polluting the planet. Greenpeace has
been involved in repeated campaigns for the carbon footprint left by
IT, even Gartner claimed that IT generated as much greenhouse gas as
the airline industry, two per cent in fact.

The footprint
happens when the search request is sent to a plethora of servers which
compete to get you the answer quickest. This is a massive
energy-consuming enterprise as the servers hold billions of web pages
filled with content. Wissner-Gross has calculated the CO2 emmisions
caused by a person to 0.02g of CO2 per second.

To see how you can reduce your emissions while surfing the web visit: www.CO2stats.com.