Google searchers could count among the most popular activities in the world at this moment; however, did you know that these searches can actually contribute to the carbon dioxide in our environment even more then it has previously been estimated?

 

Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross came to the conclusion that a typical search on a desktop computer produces approximately 7 grams of CO2. Just to get a better idea of how much that means, boiling a kettle generates approximately 15 grams of carbon dioxide.

 

The researcher told Times Online, who first reported the study (that is yet to be published), that Google’s multiple centers around the world consume a great deal of power, and therefore, Google has a definite environmental impact.

 

Furthermore, the study also suggest that Google’s goal of producing fast searches is the company’s primary concern, but this also means that they need to use a lot of extra capacity which burns energy, therefore contributing to carbon dioxide emissions.

 

However, Google not only called the 7g of CO2 per search “many times too high,” but the company also explained they’ve built the most energy efficient data centers in the world, which results in minimal energy used per search.

 

And since it’s always fair to look at the other side’s perspective too, here are Google’s estimations regarding the impact its searches have on the environment: a typical search returns results in less than 0.2 seconds. Since queries vary on degrees of difficulty, each server will work on it for just a few thousandths of a second, which transforms in 0.0003kWh of energy used per search.

 

As for the CO2 emissions, Google said each search produces approximately 0.2 grams of CO2, much less than suggested by Alex Wissner-Gross in his study. Furthermore, the company said, they’ve been working a lot on reducing the energy used by their data centers, and in 2008 alone, they invested $45 million in clean energy technologies.

 

Google used as an example the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, which they co-founded, a group committed to cutting the energy consumption from computers by 50 percent by 2010, which would also reduce global emissions by 54 million tons per year, and “that’s a lot of kettles of tea.”

 

It’s hard to say whether Alex Wissner-Gross’s findings on the Google searches are accurate or not, but we must note that he is not the only one estimating the carbon dioxide emissions to be of 7g; however, the other estimation (by John Buckley, who manages carbonfootprint.com) suggests quantities of CO2 in between 7g and 10g, only this time, the PC use was also included.

 

Wissner-Gross also reported in his study that viewing a simple web page generates about 0.02 grams of CO2 per second, but that amount increases as websites get more complex with images, videos or animations, multiplying by 10.