Major Study - Internet Emits 830 Million Tonnes of CO2 Per Year!!!

Internet emits 830 million tonnes of carbon dioxide

economictimes.indiatimes.com...

MELBOURNE: Internet and other components of information communication and technology (ICT) industry annually produces more than 830 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas, and is expected to double by 2020, a new study has found.

Researchers from the Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications (CEET) and Bell Labs explain that the information communications and technology (ICT) industry, which delivers Internet, video, voice and other cloud services, produces about 2 per cent of global CO2 emissions -- the same proportion as the aviation industry produces.

In the report published in journal Environmental Science & Technology, researchers said their projections suggest that ICT sector's share in greenhouse gas emission is expected to double by 2020.

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Internet emits 830 million tonnes of carbon dioxide yearly

Information communications and technology (ICT) industry produces about 2 percent of global CO2 emissions, equivalent to what the aviation industry produces

Now we all know how airlines are major consumers of fuel (even though most aircraft run on diesel), but if you think about how much this is and how technology double or triples in growth every six month - exponentially - this is going to be a major contributor to global warming and air pollution.

I wonder if the governments know about this and hence why (in Canada as far as I know) they have introduced a carbon tax on any electrical product (such as tvs and computers).

This is quite alarming. Not sure what to say except that I am certain the future of technology is going to create a major problem for our atmosphere as we start to consume more energy resources to use it.

Thoughts on this one ATS members?

Furthermore, to help you see the bigger picture rather than just internet causing pollution...take this article I found for example:

Internet Pollution – The Dirty Secret of the Information Age

www.beanstalk-inc.com...

On average, most data centers use approximately 6-12% of electricity to power their servers to perform routine computations. The rest of the power is spent to keep servers idling and at the ready in case of a power surge or brown-out that could slow or crash the servers.

"Worldwide, the digital warehouses use about 30 billion watts of electricity, roughly equivalent to the output of 30 nuclear power plants. A single data center can take more power than a medium-size town."

Most data centers run theirs servers 24/7 at maximum capacity, regardless of demand and as a result end up wasting approximately 90% of the electricity that is pulled right of the electrical grid. To make matters worse, most rely upon banks of generators that emit copious amounts of diesel fumes.

The inefficiency stems from the symbiotic relationship between users and the servers. Users want instantaneous access to all data, and the companies that are at risk if they fail to meet the demand.

"It’s staggering for most people, even people in the industry, to understand the numbers, the sheer size of these systems," said Peter Gross, who helped design hundreds of data centers. "A single data center can take more power than a medium-size town."



Google’s data centers currently consume approximately 300 million watts and Facebook’s, about 60 million watts. Many solutions are available to help combat this out-of-control power consumption, but in an industry that cannot afford any downtime, many companies are hesitant to implement any large scale changes.



The problem is two-fold. As users, we need to be less dependent on the data we expect to have at our finger tips at every second of every day and data centers and the computer manufacturing industry need stricter regulations and must be made to adhere to more stringent environmental standards.

If you are really interested in measuring the amount of CO2 levels and their trends over the years, you can visit the link below:

co2now.org...

CO2 reading for December 2012 was 394.39 ppm CO2.

According to their studies, what is a safe CO2 level. Their answer was:

The upper safety limit for atmospheric CO2 is 350 parts per million (ppm). Atmospheric CO2 levels have stayed higher than 350 ppm since early 1988.

As more and more consumers tap into electronics and internet, it is no wonder we are heading toward a major climate change.

For instance, they are showing trends in temperatures:

November 2012 marks the 5th warmest November since global temperature records began in 1880. The 10 warmest Novembers happened in the past 12 years. The warmest was November 2004. The coolest was November 1907.

We're all quiet...

Don't make us be thinking internetz is bad!! I've still not seen all the kittehs yet!


*buries head under keyboard

Just imagine how much gas would be released if every bit of BS typed on the internet was actually spoken words
In a way its saving energy ,people stay home and dont physically speak to others

reply to post by Skywatcher2011


Good thread, unfortunately on ATS global warming is a giant conspiracy involving all the world scientists who are out to make the poor little oil companies look bad... or something like that.

At least the plants are happy?

The deforesting of the amazon probably removed the earths capacity to negate human's Co2 production, quite sad...this being said, everything we do produces "pollution". There is no way out of it.

Sounds simpler to have more vegetation than living with high Co2 levels but I guess it would take experts and rocket scientist to plan something like that right?

Originally posted by Skywatcher2011
Now we all know how airlines are major consumers of fuel (even though most aircraft run on diesel), but if you think

Aircraft don't run on diesel, they run on a kerosene type blend. Trucks run on diesel.

It's legit to directly blame industries that burn fuel such as cars, trucks, and planes.. I don't like the deflected blame on things like "the internets" because they use electricity. They don't discriminate, they will use any electricity we provide them with and if the dirty oil and gas industries would stop holding back progress maybe the internet would be running on more clean energy sources and thus "pollute" less.

e-waste is another issue entirely but also a solvable problem.

I wonder how much electricity the NSA's completely UNNECESSARY new toy in Utah will be using.Sounds like that bloody abomination would need a small reactor all for itself.