Greening the Internet: How much CO2 does this article produce?
July 10, 2009 -- Updated 0952 GMT (1752 HKT)
By Lara Farrar
For CNN
(CNN) -- Twenty milligrams; that's the average amount of carbon emissions generated from the time it took you to read the first two words of this article.
How green is your website? Calculating all the factors involved in a website can be tricky.
How green is your website? Calculating all the factors involved in a website can be tricky.
Now, depending on how quickly you read, around 80, perhaps even 100 milligrams of C02 have been released. And in the several minutes it will take you to get to the end of this story, the number of milligrams of greenhouse gas emitted could be several thousand, if not more.
This may not seem like a lot: "But in aggregate, if you consider all the people visiting a web site and then all the seconds that each of them spends on it, it turns out to be a large number," says Dr. Alexander Wissner-Gross, an Environmental Fellow at Harvard University who studies the environmental impact of computing.
Wissner-Gross estimates every second someone spends browsing a simple web site generates roughly 20 milligrams of C02. Whether downloading a song, sending an email or streaming a video, almost every single activity that takes place in the virtual environment has an impact on the real one.
As millions more go online each year some researchers say the need to create a green Internet ecosystem is not only imperative but also urgent.
"It is part of the whole sustainability picture," Chris Large, head of research and development at UK-based Climate Action Group, told CNN.
"Scientists are saying to us that we have 10 years to take some serious action to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change so taking some sort of initiative is absolutely vital."
A number of studies have highlighted the growing energy demands of computers. A 2007 report from research firm Gartner, for example, estimates the manufacturing, use and disposal of information and communications technology generates about two percent of the world's greenhouse gases -- similar to the level produced by the entire aviation industry.
Anti-virus software firm McAfee reports that the electricity needed just to transmit the trillions of spam emails sent annually equals the amount required to power over two million homes in the United States while producing the same level of greenhouse gas emissions as more than three million cars.
"Most people don't appreciate that the computer on your desk is contributing to global warming and that if its electricity comes from a coal power plant it produces as much C02 as a sports utility vehicle," said Bill St. Arnaud of Canarie, a Canada-based internet development organization.
"Some studies estimate the internet will be producing 20 percent of the world's greenhouse gases in a decade. That is clearly the wrong direction. That is clearly unsustainable," added St. Arnaud.
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This article is absolutely, mind-blowingly ridiculous, and is proof in point of why you need to be thinking critically when reading about something that is supposedly 'green' or 'un-green.'
Assume that we currently have global warming going on, and such global warming is the result of carbon emissions. Now, browsing the Internet definitely does have an impact on those emissions. But the real question to ask is, "Does the Internet have a net beneficial impact on carbon emissions?"
Consider this: ten years ago, if you wanted to pay a bill, then you got said bill in the mail. That involves cutting down a tree, making the tree into paper, printing onto that paper, then shipping that paper to you. You then mail it back with a check.
Now consider today: you pay your bill online. Which way do you think involves fewer carbon emissions?
The Internet has a net beneficial impact because it displaces even more harmful environmental activities. In a decade, the Internet may very well be producing 20% of the world's greenhouse gases. But without the Internet, I'm willing to bet that greenhouse gases would be significantly higher. As just another example, more and more people are doing tele-conferences rather than flying to some location and having a conference there. Again, the Internet is displacing other more harmful activities.
Now, certainly efforts can be made to still reduce emissions caused by the Internet. Yet, that's already happening. Firms don't like data centers that have tons of emissions because that's inefficient and thus wastes money. So almost all firms are already upgrading their data centers.
This article is just dribble.
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