Media's Newest Climate Culprit: Search Engines
By Lachlan Markay | June 06, 2011 | 13:16
Last time it was your refrigerator's ice maker, and we wondered what the media would come with next. They have outdone themselves. The latest climate culprit: Internet search engines.
The Vancouver Sun calculated in an article last week that each search engine submission emits a minuscule one to 10 grams of carbon dioxide via a small amount of electricity usage. Add up the hundreds of millions of daily submissions, the Sun wrote, "and you're making a serious dent in some Greenland glaciers" (h/t Hot Air headlines).
It's Saturday night, and you want to catch the latest summer blockbuster. You do a quick Google search to find the venue and right time, and off you go to enjoy some mindless fun.
Meanwhile, your Internet search has just helped kill the planet. Depending on how long you took and what sites you visited, your search caused the emission of one to 10 grams of carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.
Sure, it's not a lot on its own — but add up all of the more than one billion daily Google searches, throw in 60 million Facebook status updates each day, 50 million daily tweets and 250 billion emails per day, and you're making a serious dent in some Greenland glaciers.
The lesson here, of course, is that technology uses energy (and widely used technologies use lots of energy). If we're going to take up print space rattling off all the modern conveniences that emit carbon dioxide, well, let's just say there aren't enough trees in the rainforest.
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Comments
Just one sucks ah 100 megawatts of power
Submitted by upcountrywater on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 2:23pm.
There ain't one wind farm on the planet that puts out that amount of continuous power.
Talk about dirty power
During the certification procedure of the electrical characteristics of wind turbines it was recognized, that most of the installed wind farms but also of the planned wind farms in Germany exceed the limiting values of harmonic currents
I find it interesting that Boeing and the big server outfits are hanging out in the Carolinas, union free and lots of cheep power h/t COAL.
Stay with coal, dig baby dig
O'bama 0% capital gains @4:58 and so much more.
This article
Submitted by jon_torlin on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 2:07pm.
I mentioned this in the open thread yesterday, was surprised no one picked up on it.
Either way, it's comical how they keep harping about the "carbon dioxide" that the server farms produce when volcanoes produce far more in a day than man can hope to do in years.
-Jon
Greenland
Submitted by deadeyedan on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 2:15pm.
On July 15, 1942 six P-38's and two B-17's made emergency landings on Greenland after a U-boat jammed radio transmissions intended to safely guide them to Reykjavik. When located in 1988 they had been buried by 260 feet of snow and ice; that's about five feet seven inches/year. If extrapolated over just half the extent of Greenland the weight of that much snow/ice would exceed the weight of the much ballyhooed glacial melt they're measuring.
Ain't it just great to know history?
ClimateGate - the revelation that the pseudo-scientists of East Anglia University know just as much about the atmosphere as Harvard law professors know about the Constitution - deadeyedan
In 1942, Glacier Girl was a brand new Lockheed P-38F
Submitted by upcountrywater on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 2:36pm.
Air and Space
Some guys melted the aircraft free, a photo of the men working 250 feet down.
Oh well the construction crane and other stuff buried in Antarctica.
O'bama 0% capital gains @4:58 and so much more.
Speaking of culprits...O.T.
Submitted by c5then on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 2:21pm.
I suspect that the E.Coli epidemic in Europe is mostlikely caused by "organic" farms using untreated and under-processed manure as fertalizer. There is a reason why 100 years ago there was an almost overnight move to processed and treated fertalizers and away from the organic manure. The drop in illness rates was probably just attributed to better diets and better medicine. In my opinion it was probably equally attributable to the decrease in bacteria on the produce from the animal manure.
We've now had a number of generations that have not been exposed to some of the more virulent strains of E.Coli that exist. Now we are moving back along the progress scale and guess what? Less processing and sanatizing means more illness.
Part time Congress with term limits! - No more professional politicians. Let's start rebuilding the Republic!
According to these Global
Submitted by ForeverOnTheRight on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 2:55pm.
According to these Global Warming nuts, there is only one thing that we are doing that causes GW..... everything was do. Thus the only way we can stop global warming is to eliminate man from the earth.
Is one search engine more
Submitted by Scuba Dude on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 3:01pm.
Is one search engine more "Green" than others? I myself use Bing now a days. I hope they can be considered the Prius of search engines. :-p
Me, me, me!!
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 4:00pm.
I'm sure Google will be right out front shouting 'We're the greenest! We have Al Gore!!'
LOL, gotta tell the
Submitted by Rowane on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 3:42pm.
LOL, gotta tell the enviro-wackos in the gaming world about this...wonder if they'll quit playing.
You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. (Aaron Tippin)
And then there's this...
Submitted by texasborngranny on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 10:29am.
"Biodegradable Products May Be Bad for the Environment"
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110531115321.htm