p2pnet news view P2P:- Two Google searches use up as much energy and generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling the kettle for a cup of tea, says MIT physicist Alex Wissner-Gross (right), an environmental fellow at Harvard University.

“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,” says Times Online, going on

“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.”

The story continues »»»

Google is secretive about its energy consumption and carbon footprint. It also refuses to divulge the locations of its data centres. However, with more than 200m internet searches estimated globally daily, the electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions caused by computers and the internet is provoking concern. A recent report by Gartner, the industry analysts, said the global IT industry generated as much greenhouse gas as the world’s airlines – about 2% of global CO2 emissions. “Data centres are among the most energy-intensive facilities imaginable,” said Evan Mills, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

Banks of servers storing billions of web pages require power.

But, “in the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than Google uses to answer your query,” blogs Google, stung by Wissner-Gross’ claims and the Times Online report.

It states »»»

Recently, though, others have used much higher estimates, claiming that a typical search uses “half the energy as boiling a kettle of water” and produces 7 grams of CO2. We thought it would be helpful to explain why this number is *many* times too high. Google is fast – a typical search returns results in less than 0.2 seconds. Queries vary in degree of difficulty, but for the average query, the servers it touches each work on it for just a few thousandths of a second. Together with other work performed before your search even starts (such as building the search index) this amounts to 0.0003 kWh of energy per search, or 1 kJ.

For comparison, the average adult needs about 8000 kJ a day of energy from food, so a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that your body burns in ten seconds.

In terms of greenhouse gases, one Google search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of CO2. The current EU standard for tailpipe emissions calls for 140 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven, but most cars don’t reach that level yet. Thus, the average car driven for one kilometer (0.6 miles for those of in the U.S.) produces as many greenhouse gases as a thousand Google searches.

Says Times  Online »»»

A separate estimate from John Buckley, managing director of carbonfootprint.com, a British environmental consultancy, puts the CO2 emissions of a Google search at between 1g and 10g, depending on whether you have to start your PC or not. Simply running a PC generates between 40g and 80g per hour, he says. of CO2 Chris Goodall, author of Ten Technologies to Save the Planet, estimates the carbon emissions of a Google search at 7g to 10g (assuming 15 minutes’ computer use).

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. That is almost as much used by the average Brazilian.

“It’s not an unreasonable comparison,” said Liam Newcombe, an expert on data centres at the British Computer Society. “It tells us how much energy westerners use on entertainment versus the energy poverty in some countries.”

And in a second story, “Our analysis of the Prime Minister’s site on Saturday, January 10, 2009, showed it was operating at only 64% network energy efficiency, while the Queen’s website was even worse at 54% efficiency,”Times Online. The highly trafficked BBC News website only operates at 49% efficiency.

“As a web consumer, though, you can make a difference. Over the years, Internet users have become accustomed to demanding certain levels of service from the websites that they visit. It is now de rigueur for e-commerce sites to present badges certifying that their credit card processing systems are secure. Savvy users even know to watch for certification that sites they visit are safe from hacker attacks and that have audited privacy policies to protect their identities.
“Websites now need to be put under pressure to clean up their environmental impacts too and demonstrate that their sites are as green as they can be.”

Says TO reader Mike A. Baraboo in the US:

“Dear God, I pray, the upcoming grand minima will finally put an end to this kind of psychotic pseudoscience. I think I’ll google ‘Global Cooling’ to get advice on how to prepare …”

Times Online – Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches, January 11, 2009
blogs Google – Powering a Google search, January 11, 2009
Times Online – How you can help reduce the footprint of the Web, January 11, 2009

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 9:56 am and is filed under P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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