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CO2 and Surfing the Net

Category: Environment

Viral videos are getting a little bit cooler.

How much CO2 did you create by finding this site? How much will I have produced by writing this article? Dunno to be honest, but it's becoming more apparent that the digital age isnt entirely the paper-saving godsend we first though.

co2 and surfing the net

We can all save a bit of power by switching off the computer, or adjusting the power settings (do it!) but beyond the energy consumption of your PC and other computer bits and bobs, very few people know just how the internet works, or is powered, or where it comes from. Just think.. all this data we get at the click of a button needs to come from somewhere, and has to be powered to be stored and sent around to get here. Thats a lot of stuff to store and send, after all, the internet is a big place.

But who gives a thought to the apparatus that makes the internet possible, that is powered up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Geeks maybe, yes, but thats not the point. The masses of servers and computers running algorythms for search engines and storing websites and data are there to serve normal people. We just dont really care.

But maybe we should - According to Jona Swaineas article in the Telelgraph recently, making two internet searches through Google produces about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle, and the search engine company has ‘a very definite environmental impact’ according to a recent study at Harvard University.

"Google are very efficient but their primary concern is to make searches fast and that means they have a lot of extra capacity that burns energy" the study said.

The massive growth of the internet, with users expecting large amounts of data on demand has a dangerously out-of-sight, out-of-mind environmental impact - something not particularly compatible with sustainability. Lets hope major search engines, like google, take the same lead-by-example approach to their energy bill that they have done to their technology, before it comes back and bites us in the rear.

p.s. On the subject of interesting bum-biting themes, we stumbled upon a shark surfing video, below. While you watch it, think of all that data, where it comes from and where that place gets its power from...

Find out more about Carbon in Clothing at Rapanui