Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches

Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches

Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research.

While millions of people tap into Google without considering the environment, a typical search generates about 7g of CO2 Boiling a kettle generates about 15g. “Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power,” said Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist whose research on the environmental impact of computing is due out soon. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact.”

More...

I'm counting the seconds before someone now calculates ATS' approximate carbon footprint.



Deny ignorance at your planet's peril!



Funny....and sad.




[edit on 11-1-2009 by loam]

More preparation for the "carbon credit" scam. They will convince you that CO2 does something in order to make the largest scam of all time come to pass. Now that "Global Warming" is freezing up, they are now trying to convince us that CO2 is responsible for causing an Ice Age! LOL

I just find it ironic that people still support and believe this Co2 is causing global warming crap... oops I mean climate changes.... oops I mean Ice Age ... ooops, I don't know what we mean but anything bad with the weather means CO2 now give us our carbon credit scam so we can get richer! Shhh.. don't ask questions, just give us the money and power we want to regulate everyone's lives and charge you trillions in taxes and fees in order to line our pockets!


Greenhouse gases could have caused an ice age, claim scientists
www.telegraph.co.uk...

Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age
english.pravda.ru...

reply to post by loam


It's not funny and sad, it's retarded and stupid.

Cows put out more green house gases than google ever will.

This whole global warming crap has been debunked over and over agian, that's why they started calling it "climate change", same fear propaganda, slightly different name. If anything is effecting our weather, it's the sun.

Little fact for the enviromental wackos out there, did you know that every year it gets hot and cold??? OMGHARXOR ClImAtE cHaNgEs!!1!!!! No it's called the seasons, it's because of our eliptical orbit, right now we have a big hole in our electromagnetic sphere so we are expereince a tad bit of crazy weather right now.

Please, don't buy into all this stupid government propaganda, since when has the government cared about the enviroment or it's own people?

The government only cares about getting your money and controling you, they will do it any way possible.

-Lahara

OK, I need some help, how do we tie the problem of a weakening magnetic field to man made energy production, Co2, or something we can tax businesses and individuals on?... Let's help them out a bit and come up with a scientific reason that people will buy.

I was thinking we can say that all the electrical currents we as humans produce via electricity and the delivery of electricity through power lines is "causing" the changes in the earth's magnetic field!!!

Now, we can get a coalition of scientists to hit the government up for millions for research, have Al Gore make another movie and if we preach this well enough we can make a crap-ton of money just on the books.... If it goes well enough after that, we can then press for "electron credits" and "electron Cap & Trade" scams.

I hereby claim this scam.... err, I mean scientific discovery and disclosure of the greatest threat to mankind ever, publicly on the internet today and we will call this the "Infolurker Effect" going forward!

We will make a mint from every kilowatt of electricity produced in the WORLD! This is almost as good as the Co2 scam and nobody has claimed it yet! (Yes, the UN will gladly assist us in this department, we can give them a portion of the money to line their pockets and they will support us 100%)

Scientists, Please contact me when we have some graphs and some data to take to the press and I will schedule a press conference. "PS, if you can somehow link this to Co2 instead of electricity production we can greatly assist our friends from the original C02 scam but they already have claim to C02 and WE will not make our money off this so we need to be independent here and make sure we have a "New" man made cause of this imminent disaster please. No use sharing with the Co2 clowns when we can start a whole NEW fear mongering money maker for ourselves.


news.nationalgeographic.com...

Google's Official response:

...in the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than Google uses to answer your query.

Recently, though, others have used much higher estimates, claiming that a typical search uses "half the energy as boiling a kettle of water" and produces 7 grams of CO2. We thought it would be helpful to explain why this number is *many* times too high. Google is fast — a typical search returns results in less than 0.2 seconds. Queries vary in degree of difficulty, but for the average query, the servers it touches each work on it for just a few thousandths of a second. Together with other work performed before your search even starts (such as building the search index) this amounts to 0.0003 kWh of energy per search, or 1 kJ. For comparison, the average adult needs about 8000 kJ a day of energy from food, so a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that your body burns in ten seconds.

In terms of greenhouse gases, one Google search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of CO2. The current EU standard for tailpipe emissions calls for 140 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven, but most cars don't reach that level yet. Thus, the average car driven for one kilometer (0.6 miles for those in the U.S.) produces as many greenhouse gases as a thousand Google searches.


Link.

It's interesting they came out so quickly to respond.

Denying ignorance just got more eco-friendly.

Search away....



[edit on 12-1-2009 by loam]