CO2 output of using Google

[kensuguro]

Interesting article in Sunday Times. Harvard physicist calculated that Googling twice, results in the same amount of carbon emission as boiling a pot of water. Of course, Google responds "Googling allows you to obtain knowledge without going outside. Driving a car for 1km is the same as Googling 1000 times".

The interesting thing here isn't the climate change issue. No, it's a totally different issue. When we measure activities against an absolute scale, like carbon emissions then all of a sudden we think in terms of efficiency. So, let's say Google lets you figure things out without going outside. Let's say it takes you insane amount of carbon emission to reach the top of mt everest, the bottom of the ocean, drive across the sahara, meet a friend in france for a collaborative project, take a train up to Rovaniemi in Finland to meet Santa...

This is the classic, book vs actual experience question. Same thing, just that with carbon emissions thrown into the equation, there's a concrete number to measure efficiency against. I say this is totally crap. The best answer is, for you, the user to obtain the capacity to make the most use of the info you get. Whether it's google results, or burning down a forest, the value of info is CREATED, and not inherent in the info itself.

So, going back to the Google case, let's say Googling once created 1 unit of carbon emission, and driving a car resulted in 1000 units. If you had 1000 Googles, on the word "American Idol".... that unit is much better spent on something else. The inefficient use of Google, if accrued, will become an astronomical number. Same thing for real life too, I think. Many people travel overseas, do the tourist thing, touch nothing "real", and come back not having learned a single thing, except an extravagant story to tell their friends. The biggest inefficiency is comes from people who cannot produce anything of value from their experiences. Which unfortunately amounts to a large part of the human population.

[Mr Arkadin]

Interesting article in Sunday Times. Harvard physicist calculated that Googling twice, results in the same amount of carbon emission as boiling a pot of water.

No doubt he used a 1000 carbon units (whatever the fuck that is) to calculate that Googling uses one unit. What bollocks. You could go round in circles with this stuff. Soon just being a human breathing out carbon dioxide will be a liability to these people (not very much as it happens as the lungs are not that efficient otherwise you would faint every time you exhaled) and we'll probably be taxed for breathing.

In the UK now you can buy packets of crisps (that's chips to our US cousins ) with a carbon rating ffs.

We've been given nice sound bites lately: carbon footprint, carbon neutral, credit crunch, war on terror etc. to use by our governments. No-one really knows what they mean. People then start bandying them about as if they know what they mean and before you know it they believe this shit. Which is of course what the powers want.

Can you tell i'm slightly angry now?

[kensuguro]

your anger footprint has grown to be about a size 15...

[Neutron]

yes its much better to get an encyclopedia well actually a whole library about life the universe, and everything in your livingroom.
trees, delivery trucks, papermaking blah blah might use a little more than a few rotations of a hard drive and sending some bytes.
or does he just want everyone to stay stupid so they will listen to him instead.

[garyb]

damn, this carbon BS is getting out of hand!

is there anyone intelligent who hasn't figured out that it's a scam yet? if so, then you haven't been paying attention in school. there is NOTHING more important and life giving on thae planet besides CO2, except maybe water...

[Shroomz~>]

The real end of line of the Carbon scam is to get the energy consumer to pay for the development of new more efficient energy sources which will cost less to run & provide higher profits to the energy companies, governments & banks. Add to that the fact that many current energy sources (nuclear power stations in particular) are at or nearing the end of their 20-25 year lifespan & need replaced at a massive cost immediately & you start to get the picture. Yes it's all a scam in the sense that the Carbon spin is a front for taking more cash from the general public & yes it's all a scam in the sense that the energy consumer will be forced to pay for energy supply developments which should be getting paid by the companies set to profit from them. They're shafting us from every conceivable angle.

[Me$$iah]

As I always say .... theres only one thing that 'They' want

only one thing ... everything.....they want it all.

[Gordon Gekko]

Can you tell i'm slightly angry now?

Slightly? an angry dog that needs to chase a burgler would be a better analogy, me thinks