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Marnstar Holy smokes. If this is true, then I take full responsibility for this week's freak 85-degree weather in San Diego. -
AltESasch I think we have to keep in perspective the efficiency of Google searching versus a car trip a couple miles down to our local library. Almost all of our modern activities result in some type of emissions. Our focus shouldn't be on the minutia of Google searches (a most efficient alternative) but the bigger ones in our daily lives - casual drives to a mall that's farther from home but nicer than that strip mall close by, keeping that cranky old inefficient fridge around because we never get around to buying a real efficient high EnergyStar rated one, consuming highly plastic wrapped "foods", choosing an electric provider that burns coal (and is cheaper) instead of coughing up the extra 2 to 3 cents per kilowatt for a clean energy provider (not available for everyone I know), etc.
A Google or a Cup of Tea: Which Warms the Globe the Most?
TreeHugger —
... and a little imagination
Which adds more to global warming: a Google search or a cup of tea? Now, thanks to the UK Sunday Times, millions will be eco-guilt tripping on the environmental impact of turning to our computers to answer every question.
Not so long ago, people would open an encyclopedia, call their doctor, or ask Grandma when a mystery arose. Now, one can hardly get through a dinner party without consulting the web to resolve some dispute of great importance. So just how many cups of tea would you have to ... ...
Measuring your Google search's carbon footprint
Ecoearth.info Blog —
Updated at 12:20 a.m PST January 12 to include Google comment. Worried about the carbon footprint of your Google searches? A Harvard University physicist says a typical search on a desktop computer generates about 7 grams of carbon dioxide. Thus, performing two searches is comparable to bringing a kettle to boil, according to a report Sunday in The Times of London. While that may not sound like a lot, the report notes that Google handles about 200 million searches daily. "Google operates huge data centers around the world that consume a great deal of power," Alex ...
Google Searches Are Power Hogs
Earth2Tech —
... Because Google has developed its search engine to provide you with results as fast as possible, its search queries are actually consuming a significant amount of power, resulting in substantial CO2 emissions per search query, Harvard PhD student Alex Wissner-Gross, creator of CO2Stats tells the London Times. How much is a lot? An average search on the Google emits 7 grams of CO2 — so, two searches on Google uses the same amount of power as boiling water in a tea kettle.
Wissner-Gross, who will be speaking at our Green:Net conference in March ...
How many cups of tea does it take to power a Google search?
Do The Green Thing: Stories, videos, and more —
... Yesterday's Sunday Times trumpeted "The environmental impact of Google searches". A fellow called Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard research fellow in fact, reckons his research proves that every two Google searches (7g of CO2 each) uses the same amount of energy as boiling the kettle for a cuppa (15g). ...
Sunday Times and the Google non-story
GreenMonk: the blog —
... I was more than a little surprised to read a story printed in the UK’s Sunday Times yesterday claiming that a search on popular search engine Google: ...
Analyzing Google Searches
Green Daily —
... monitor, you could use the custom dark-screen google search blackle. Other options include smaller, more energy efficient workstations, or, in some cases picking up a paper dictionary or phone book to find your answer. How many google searches did I perform to write this piece? I'm not telling. Analyzing Google Searches originally appeared on Green Daily on Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:45:00 EST 0. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | ...
Next hot market: Google search carbon offsets?
Greenbang —
... According to Harvard University Alex Wissner-Gross, each Google search is responsible for 7 grams of carbon emissions. To put that in less virtual terms, he suggests every two searches generate as much carbon dioxide as it does to boil a kettle of water for tea. ...
Your Google Carbon footprint
Green Home Huddler —
A recent feature in the Times Online (UK) called " Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches " is claiming that every Google search is responsible for 7g of CO2 released into the environment and that in aggregate, that's a whole lotta CO2. I'd have to request a little perspective here...a book is responsible for 2500g, a cheeseburger can be responsible for as much as 3600g and Google responded saying that they're actually closer to ...
Google disputes Harvard Fellow's pollution estimate
Ecoearth.info Blog —
The carbon footprint of a search query is nowhere near the estimate concluded by a Harvard academic, Google said late Sunday. British newspaper The Sunday Times published a story on Sunday with results from a study conducted by ...
Ignore the media hype and keep Googling — The energy impact of web searches is LOW
Climate Progress —
Google Some myths are hard to kill. The Times Online “ reports “: 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 ...
Google footprint - Jan 13
Energy Bulletin - —
... homepage Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches Jonathan Leake and Richard Woods, UK Times 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 ...
The Footprint of a Google Query
GoodCleanTech —
... A recent article published originally by a Sunday Times from London caused quite a stir for claiming that one Google search query generates seven grams of carbon dioxide. The figure is compared to the footprint of boiling a pot of water which averages 15 grams of carbon dioxide. ...
Grams be damned
Grist - the Latest from Grist —
By David Roberts Apparently the question of how much greenhouse gas emissions can be traced to a single Google search is the hottest topic on the internets. Research from U.S. physicist Alex Wissner-Gross says a single search produces 7g of CO2. Google says, nuh uh, it only produces 0.2g CO2 -- less than your personal computer generates while running it. Lots more here. There may be some value in drawing attention to the substantial carbon footprint of the IT industry, but by the time this kind of thing gets filtered through the ...
You may all now Google without guilt
Greenbang —
... reports today that Harvard physicist Alex Wissner-Gross says his yet-to-be-published study did not focus on the impact of Google but on the carbon footprint of the Web in general. While acknowledging that Google, being a part of the Internet and all, does in fact have some environmental impact, Wissner-Gross says, the original Sunday Times article citing his research did not accurately represent his study. ...
The carbon footprint of googling...
Archinect.com Feed —
The carbon footprint of googling... the London Times reports on 'do no evil' google's carbon footprint. 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, ...
Google CO2 Claim Throws CO2Stats Into Limelight
Greentech Media: All Content —
... has been busy in the last 48 hours, denying the claim attributed to him in a widely noticed Sunday story from The Times of London. "It's sort of bizarre," the 27-year-old physicist said Tuesday of The Times report. His company hasn't even done specific calculations on Google's greenhouse gas emissions per search, he said though he thinks the source of the information may be this ...
Keep on Googling
Grist - the Latest from Grist —
By Joseph Romm Some myths are hard to kill. The Times Online "reports": 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 ...
Google Rebuts Claims about CO2 Cost of Searches
EarthFirst.com —
... The UK’s Times reported last Sunday that doing two searches on Google uses about as much energy as boiling a kettle of water, an allegation that Google is denying on their ...
Google Causes Global Warming? | ZapRoot 073
ZapRoot —
Is Google destroying the planet one search at a time? The recycling market has gone bust. And check out “That’s Just Weird.”
ZapRoot
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Recycling Market Goes Bust
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Gordon Brown Superglue
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Is Google Destroying the Planet One Search At a Time?
Green Options —
... Last month, The Times said that two typical Google searches generate the same amount of carbon emissions that are generated by boiling a kettle, “about 15g of CO2.” This week ...
Eliminate Newspapers, Save the Planet?
Green Inc. —
... if they still wanted to receive a newspaper. But the emphasis going forward would be on delivering “innovative” products such as online news on screens in lobbies in some hotels, Marriott said. Marriott did not say in its statement whether cutting back on buying papers would, in turn, boost the use of electricity to power hardware like server farms and power masts that relay data to computers and mobile phones on which consumers increasingly rely for their news. Early this year, The Times of London reported studies by a Harvard physicist showing that a typical search on ...
Greener internet searches
Super Eco News Feed —
... As a writer who runs handsful of internet searches not every day but every working hour, I was completely disheartened to discover that a single Google search (whether it's research for a work project or the latest movie schedule for this evening) throws the equivalent of 7 grams of carbon into the atmosphere. Ouch. Many green search sites claim to trim energy use and ...
A green-tinged farewell to the newspaper
Super Eco News Feed —
... staples, coatings and films) onto landfills. "Starts with trees being cut down in a forest and ends with the burning and (hopefully) recycling of old" newspapers, a process that contributes to the deforestation and animal habitat destruction of old-growth and endangered forests.Is there such a thing as an environmentally sound newsprint paper? The newspaper-funded Green Press Initiative hopes so. How I wish it weren't pulp fiction. Uh, oh. Google News searches aren't so good for green either. But I didn't read about that in the ...
