Are We Killing the Earth a Google Search At a Time?
The Times published an article highlighting that a new research had shown that 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.
Alex Wissner-Gross, a MIT graduate now at Harvard University, had put in his research that a typical search generates about 7g of CO2.
“”A Google search has a definite environmental impact” and “Google operates huge data centers around the world that consume a great deal of power,” he said.
Alas, an economist would have point out that the concept of opportunity cost. Instead of browsing an encyclopedia to look up for information, one can simply perform an online search and read up on the required information online - thus saving the CO2 associated with the printing of the encyclopedia (which would translate to a large amount of CO2).
Google had also responded, stating that a single search is actually equivalent to a mere 0.2 grams of CO2.
Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch, Rewiring the World, has calculated that maintaining a character (known as an avatar) in the Second Life virtual reality game, requires 1,752 kilowatt hours of electricity per year.
Now that’s a huge “chunk” of energy!
p.s. this site is carbon-neutral too