Research proves googling has a carbon footprint
Alex Wissner-Gross, a US physicist has calculated the environmental impact of googling. Another study found that the global IT industry produces the same amount of greenhouse gases as all the world’s airlines combined.
Mr Wissner-Gross found that the average search produces 7g of carbon dioxide, and that is for just one search term. Put into perspective boiling a cup of water in an electric kettle produces 14g of carbon dioxide.
While these figures may seem small it is important to note that an estimated 200 million internet searches are carried out every day. Mr Wissner-Gross claims the carbon emissions produced by a simple Google search are produced by the searcher’s person computer and by the large data centres operated by Google.
Google is famous for returning results faster than its rivals but that is because it uses multiple data centres simultaneously which therefore produces more carbon dioxide. Mr Wissner-Gross also says that 0.02g of carbon emissions are produced for every second a person is connected to the internet.
Michael Reed
