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| Another cause of Climate Change - Googling! | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 11 2009, 09:58 AM (249 Views) | |
| George K | Jan 11 2009, 09:58 AM Post #1 |
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Finally
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Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches Jonathan Leake and Richard Woods January 11, 2009 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.” 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. 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. Wissner-Gross has submitted his research for publication by the US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and has also set up a website www.CO2stats.com. “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,” he said. Google said: “We are among the most efficient of all internet search providers.” Wissner-Gross has also calculated the CO2 emissions caused by individual use of the internet. His research indicates that viewing a simple web page generates about 0.02g of CO2 per second. This rises tenfold to about 0.2g of CO2 a second when viewing a website with complex images, animations or videos. 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)… =-=-=-=-=-= ![]() |
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A guide to GKSR: Click "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08 Nothing is as effective as homeopathy. I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles. - Klaus, 4/29/18 | |
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| QuantumIvory | Jan 11 2009, 10:38 AM Post #2 |
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Senior Carp
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Well, all I can say is we had better start Googling our azzes off now! Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age |
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"I regard consciousness as fundamental. We cannot get behind consciousness." -Max Planck | |
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| ivorythumper | Jan 11 2009, 10:45 AM Post #3 |
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
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I only got one hit on that.
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| The dogma lives loudly within me. | |
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| QuantumIvory | Jan 11 2009, 10:50 AM Post #4 |
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Senior Carp
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"I regard consciousness as fundamental. We cannot get behind consciousness." -Max Planck | |
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| George K | Jan 11 2009, 10:50 AM Post #5 |
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Finally
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Remember the old saying: There is no Izvsetia in Pravda and no Pravda in Izvestia. |
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A guide to GKSR: Click "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08 Nothing is as effective as homeopathy. I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles. - Klaus, 4/29/18 | |
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| Axtremus | Jan 11 2009, 02:39 PM Post #6 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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Do you know what's the carbon footprint for each post you make? I'm thinking all you prolific posters with over 20,000 posts should be really ashamed of yourselves right now.
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| ivorythumper | Jan 11 2009, 02:49 PM Post #7 |
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
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Ax: If you really cared about your carbon footprint you would quit exhaling. Otherwise, you are doing the same sort of thing as the Hollywood glitterati who smugly drive their hybrids to their private jets.
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| The dogma lives loudly within me. | |
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| QuantumIvory | Jan 11 2009, 03:07 PM Post #8 |
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Senior Carp
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Yeah...and as I have just over a hundred posts, and IT has over 27,000, I think IT should buy some carbon offsets from me. It's all for a better world, you know. |
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"I regard consciousness as fundamental. We cannot get behind consciousness." -Max Planck | |
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| Moonbat | Jan 11 2009, 03:13 PM Post #9 |
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Pisa-Carp
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Exhaling doesn't actually affect carbon footprint - the CO2 you breathe out is carbon neutral because of where it comes from and where it would go if you didn't breathe out. |
| Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem | |
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| ivorythumper | Jan 11 2009, 03:15 PM Post #10 |
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
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I'd ask you to flesh that out, but I won't want to contribute to the demise of the polar bears. |
| The dogma lives loudly within me. | |
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| George K | Jan 12 2009, 11:20 AM Post #11 |
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Finally
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Google responds. |
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A guide to GKSR: Click "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08 Nothing is as effective as homeopathy. I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles. - Klaus, 4/29/18 | |
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| John D'Oh | Jan 12 2009, 11:25 AM Post #12 |
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MAMIL
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Sod the polar bears - once you two get going it's the will-to-live of the rest of the board you should be worrying about. |
| What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket? | |
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| jon-nyc | Jan 12 2009, 11:27 AM Post #13 |
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Cheers
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This is very true. At the investment bank I worked at, they measured data center capacity in megawatts. |
| In my defense, I was left unsupervised. | |
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| Moonbat | Jan 12 2009, 11:49 AM Post #14 |
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Pisa-Carp
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| Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem | |
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| ivorythumper | Jan 13 2009, 12:21 PM Post #15 |
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
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What do those terms mean such that a data center is more energy intensive than a steel mill? |
| The dogma lives loudly within me. | |
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| Moonbat | Jan 13 2009, 12:55 PM Post #16 |
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Pisa-Carp
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Income per watt? Or perhaps they are just comparing data centres to data centres (and have some measure of computational workload per watt)? |
| Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem | |
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| ivorythumper | Jan 13 2009, 01:20 PM Post #17 |
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
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It could be anything, since the statement itself cannot stand on its own terms. |
| The dogma lives loudly within me. | |
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| jon-nyc | Jan 13 2009, 01:27 PM Post #18 |
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Cheers
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Apparently the constraints of the data centers at my bank come down to power - there's room for more equipment but not the power (conditioned, with emergency backup). So when they talked of the capacity of each of the various centers around the world, and upgrades they would do, they would talk in terms of power used. |
| In my defense, I was left unsupervised. | |
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| jon-nyc | Jan 13 2009, 01:29 PM Post #19 |
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Cheers
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It doesn't seem to be just the investment banks that measure data center capacity in megawatts: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&fkt=1763&fsdt=9171&q=data+center+capacity+measured+in+megawatts&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq= |
| In my defense, I was left unsupervised. | |
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