Our central air conditioner has kept our home comfortable for the past few weeks. Of course, it's worth all the energy it is sucking from the grid during those heat spells. Ever thought about how much energy your online searches take?
Jason Stamper for the New Statesman writes, "Who would have thought that, globally, the IT industry produces about the same volume of greenhouse gases as the world's airlines do - roughly 2 per cent of all CO2 emissions?
Many everyday tasks take a surprising toll on the environment. A Google search can leak between 0.2 and 7.0 grams of CO2, depending on how many attempts are needed to get the "right" answer. At the upper end of the scale, two searches create roughly the same emissions as boiling a kettle."
I boil a kettle of water most afternoons for a green tea break. That's quite a bit of energy...
"To deliver results to its users quickly, Google has to maintain vast data centres around the world, packed with powerful computers. As well as producing large quantities of CO2, these computers emit a great deal of heat, so the centres need to be well air-conditioned - which uses even more energy."
"Simple things - such as turning devices off when they are not in use - can help to reduce the impact of our love affair with all things digital. Research from the National Energy Foundation in the UK found that nearly 20 per cent of workers don't turn their PCs off at the end of
the day, wasting 1.5 billion kWh of electricity per year - which equates to the annual CO2 produced by 200,000 small family cars."
And computers are only a small percentage of our home utility needs. These statistics encourages one to think about the daily consumption of energy and what steps can be taken to conserve.
