CO2 debt: environmental impact of google searches-Harvard physicist

"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.”

• Google is secretive about its energy consumption and carbon footprint. It also refuses to divulge the locations of its data centres.

However, with more than 200m internet searches estimated globally daily, the electricity consumption and

• greenhouse gas emissions caused by computers and the internet is

• provoking concern. ...

“Data centres are among the most energy-intensive facilities imaginable,” said Evan Mills, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. Banks of servers storing billions of web pages require power.

Though Google says it is in the forefront of green computing, its search engine generates high levels of CO2 because of the way it operates.

• When you type in a Google search for, say, “energy saving tips”, your request doesn’t go to just one server. It goes to several competing against each other.

It may even be sent to servers thousands of miles apart. Google’s infrastructure sends you data from whichever produces the answer fastest. The system minimises delays

• but raises energy consumption.

• Google has servers in the US, Europe, Japan and China."...via the Drudge Report

Haven't they heard the globe is actually cooling? Being from Harvard, perhaps the author has not. Poor Al Gore, the people at google are some of his best pals. If he was really a friend, he'd come up with a solution that doesn't involve buying/trading carbon offsets, energy credits, or related scams. Not that there's even really a problem. (sm)

• Alex Wissner-Gross is the 2008 Harvard Environmental Fellow (Probably a Red Sox fan too).

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