Did anyone know this?

[Capt.Jack Sparrow]

I know it's a old news but I was kind of shocked to see this ...

Dr Wissner-Gross's study claims that two Google searches on a desktop computer produces 14g of CO2, which is the roughly the equivalent of boiling an electric kettle

BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Carbon cost' of Google revealed

 

[Arc]

Omg !

 

[Corazon]

I bet that's nothing compared to the CO2 output of, say, Facebook for a day.

 

[lhorwinkle]

Keep in mind that doing NO Google searches on your computer will have the same effect.

Anyway, 14 g is entirely trivial. How does that compare to backing your car out of the driveway, just once?

 

[mickey megabyte]

Keep in mind that doing NO Google searches on your computer will have the same effect...

i don't think this is true, because some power is also used by the google servers whilst processing your query, which wouldn't happen if you did no searches. (and a teensy little bit of power is also used by your nic, router, isp etc etc when data is sent and received.)

anyway, the OP's article is nearly three years old, and google have taken steps to ensure the power used by their data centres isn't as much as it once was.

 

[Capt.Jack Sparrow]

Man ... So there is no point in having a signature "Consider environment before printing this e-mail"

 

[mickey megabyte]

yes there is. printing uses a lot more power (and paper and ink/toner and printer wear-and-tear) than googling.

you could even consider generalising the sig into "consider the environment before doing anything".

however, you also have to realise that using power is unavoidable in the modern world - just try not to waste too much of it!

 

[Mercurial]

lol +1 to that

 

[Capt.Jack Sparrow]

yes there is. printing uses a lot more power (and paper and ink/toner and printer wear-and-tear) than googling.

you could even consider generalising the sig into "consider the environment before doing anything".

however, you also have to realise that using power is unavoidable in the modern world - just try not to waste too much of it!

That's true.

 

[whs]

14g may be trivial, but it is the many 14gs that add up.