A tip of the cap to loyal RedStater Kenny Solomon on this one:
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 impact of computing is due out soon. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact.”
Make sure the next time you run a Google search (or a hundred of them), you face the East, beg forgiveness from Gaia, and offer Algore a tithe of at least half your salary to offset the damage you’re doing to this planet.
Though Google says it is in the forefront of green computing, its search engine generates high levels of CO2 because of the way it operates. When you type in a Google search for, say, “energy saving tips”, your request doesn’t go to just one server. It goes to several competing against each other.
It may even be sent to servers thousands of miles apart. Google’s infrastructure sends you data from whichever produces the answer fastest. The system minimises delays but raises energy consumption. Google has servers in the US, Europe, Japan and China.
If you wish I’m sure you can donate to the Eric Schmidt private jet number seven fund Google Solar Panel and Carbon Offset fund by making a check out to GOOG and putting it in next week’s mail. If you’re really worried about the environmental cost of your internet searching, just leave the check blank.
Thanks Jeff !......... A pleasure to help keep us all aware of our friends on the left side of the planet.
Kenny Solomon Sunday, January 11th at 6:57PM EST (link)Just in case y’all would care to see my snark to the London Times about this article…….. I sent the following, but I don’t think they printed it….. surprised at that, I’m not.
—————
“This is a joke right? No? You folks are serious ?
Individual freedom and liberty are in a much more perilous state than I thought.
I’m going to set my computer on an automatic random Google search and let it fly while I go out and boil up some water to fill my swimming pool with hot tea.”
—————-
If y’all feel like it, why don’t you pop over to that article link and cheer ‘em up a bit with a pithy comment or two. After all, being a devout global climate change loon keeps a person kind of depressed.
Cheers !
Kenny Solomon
Senior Expediter
The 72 Virgins Club Travel Agency
Offices throughout America (all 57 states).
Of course you can have my guns……. Bullets first.
I didn’t say rounds, shells or magazines…… I said bullets first.
Save the planet...Google continuously!
azaeroprof Sunday, January 11th at 7:13PM EST (link)If Googling generates CO2, and thus causes global warming, it may be the only way to save the planet from our next ice age!
C’mon AlGore, we need you to help us save the planet! Where are you on this issue? We certainly aren’t capable of saving it ourselves!!
Join the RedState Strike Force
Isn't the answer obvioius?
TallChE Sunday, January 11th at 7:34PM EST (link)We need to make Bill Gates happy and use MSN Live Search instead of that evil CO2 generating Google. That will really solve the problem.
Actually, I’m sure that we will not have to do anything. Anyday now I just know that the Trial Laywer Association will file a class action lawsuit against Al Gore since we all know that he invented the Internet.
I was going to say...
mikefisk Sunday, January 11th at 8:04PM EST (link)…since the consumption of power per search is partially linked to the volume of searches (as most servers use about half their peak power just idling doing nothing), shouldn’t that mean we use MORE Google searches, and decrease each person’s CO2 emissions per search?
A Green could argue that it’s in the interest of the planet, so long as Google keeps these massive data centers, to keep them as close to capacity as possible…
“Once within the maw of Leviathan, degree of digestion is irrelevant.” - Michael Fisk
7.88, -1.97
MSN is also 100% organic and cruelty-free (nt)
zuiko Tuesday, January 13th at 5:36AM EST (link)Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
Gee, guys, trees need CO2 to live
olsmithie Sunday, January 11th at 8:10PM EST (link)and I just love trees. Need to run out and hug one , I ‘m just so upset thinking about my poor tree suffocating…
Anybody out there ever had any chemistry?? I can’t believe how ignorant the public is about science.
Unbelievable! that they should be taken in by the carbon crap.
Seriously…
This is why when I search the internet...
kowalski Sunday, January 11th at 8:19PM EST (link)This is why, when I search the internet, I do it by hand.
One web page at a time. With a magnifying glass and a tiny Japanese spy camera.
Defend Liberty — Join the NRA | Live in Massachusetts? Join GOAL.
If no one listened to the Weather Channel now
woodsman Sunday, January 11th at 8:39PM EST (link)the resulting reduction in CO2 emissions would be worth something. After all, at this time TWC spends almost as much time talking about climate change as weather change right now, so just shut them off and get WeatherBug or some equivalent.
Then you get current weather and save the environment by not listening to the nutballs.
hmm, might be time to go run some random google searches.
RJD Sunday, January 11th at 9:03PM EST (link)anyone else do that, just aimlessly search for anything that pops into your head on a quiet evening?
I wikipedia'd Keynesian, and supply-side economics last night...
Chemical Sam Sunday, January 11th at 11:35PM EST (link)Economists are peculiar people, I must say.
My way out of a recession or depression: Start a new company and start making some serious money! The lab is now ready! — http://www.criterionchemical.com
Boehner is a Weenie...It was verified at the Weicheischuppen Jr.
$peciallist Sunday, January 11th at 10:51PM EST (link)My favorite SpongeBob episode, evah... [nt]
bs Sunday, January 11th at 11:38PM EST (link)Decorum is fo’ suckas - unless it’s one of the good guys
Haa!!!! nt
6eorge Jetson Tuesday, January 13th at 2:02AM EST (link)What a complete load of crap.
Chemical Sam Sunday, January 11th at 11:34PM EST (link)People do realise that those IT centers are running, air-conditioned, fully operational, and consuming energy at essentially the same rate no matter whether they are being used, or sitting idle, right?
Our physicist-in-One-World-residence making that alarmist point to demonstrate how neglectful of the world people with computers are should be shown the door for being a one-ply-thinking tool. How much energy do you think it would take to drive everyone to the local library instead?
Has anyone at Google considered isolating the Chinese and the Iranians from their Internet networking system, and maintaining and otherwise domestic network? Is Europe’s usage worth the Trans-Atlantic cable? Is it easier to keep servers air-conditioned in Singapore?
Has is occurred to anyone that the more users using the same amount of resources, the smaller the impact per person? Could it be that if more people used the service, Google would be more econmomical? I’d be okay for a delay of a second rather than a millisecond for the results. I need the extra time to blink these days, because of the throughput of complete nonsense passing across my screen.
My way out of a recession or depression: Start a new company and start making some serious money! The lab is now ready! — http://www.criterionchemical.com
I don't normally point out typos, but you may have coined a new term :)
6eorge Jetson Monday, January 12th at 4:53AM EST (link)“Econmomical”
ec?on?mom?i?cal? ?[e-kuh-mom-i-kul, ee-kuh-]
–adjective
1. a term simultaneously connoting the misuse of economics, mom-like authoritarian behavior, and comical outcomes
2. pertaining to the sub-optimal, politically constrained production, distribution, and use of income, wealth, and commodities.
3. of or pertaining to the bogus use of the “science” of economics.
4. involving or pertaining to one’s personal resources of money: to give up a good for no good reason.
5. affecting or apt to affect the welfare of material resources: weevils and other economic pests.
What, no CAFE-like regulations on Google? I wonder why?
6eorge Jetson Monday, January 12th at 4:34AM EST (link)Google Money Engine for Democrats only
The Google story was a gift
peg_c Monday, January 12th at 5:39AM EST (link)I hurt myself laughing and sent it to all my co-workers and family. Then I spent several hours googling continuously to warm up the house (it was 20 here yesterday). If I were a scientist I’d be seriously concerned that the field is rapidly losing all respect with asylum escapees like this doofus pushing the latest idiocy.
Government cannot be the solution when government is the problem.
What's a good liberal to do
zuiko Tuesday, January 13th at 5:34AM EST (link)Now, not only are you supposed to buy carbon credits for your airfare and hotel stay, you need to include the Google search to find a scammer willing to take your money in exchange for “carbon credits”, the rendering of the carbon credit website, the credit card processing, the extra line on your credit card statement, the calculator you are using to try to figure out all this stuff…
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman