I just noticed an article in Times Online about the environmental impact of Google searches. A scientist has alleged that making two searches on Google uses as much energy as boiling a kettle, as high powered servers across the world compete to give you the fastest answer. Google's response suggests that this figure is far too high, and gives an explanation for their figures.
This is quite a gimmicky way to introduce a potentially more serious subject. Do you ever consider the impact of your online activities on the environment? To quote a related article on the Times website, "when you are sitting in London viewing a website hosted in California, there are power plants on at least two continents actively pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in order for you to watch that video or read that online newspaper.
Since millions of people are surfing the web every hour of every day, that carbon footprint adds up to an astounding 2% of international emissions each year."
Should 2009 be the year in which you consider whether to cut back on your computer usage? Or do you think this is all a big fuss distracting us from the real issues?
Phil Bradley's commonsense blog post puts this all in a bit of perspective: if you weren't using Google, you would probably have to drive to your local library, or phone someone, or do something consuming far more energy than an Internet search.
