Every Time You Google, a Polar Bear Cub Drowns

The latest lunacy from moonbats features the accusation that users who perform internet searches are releasing as much polar bear-killing CO2 as making a pot of tea.  And the governments of the world are pissed that Google is keeping all of their server farms a secret, because they might want to shut it down to stop the mythical global warming.

From the TimesOnline here:

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.

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.

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.

Maintaining a character (known as an avatar) in the Second Life virtual reality game, requires 1,752 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. That is almost as much used by the average Brazilian.

Are they saying that Brazilians should be the model for power consumption?  I think this is the latest scheme for leftist eco-religionists to raise taxes on technology, and perhaps introduce an international tax on the Internet and its users.

And as soon as they figure out how to integrate Internet browsing on flights, I intend to Google my ass off from New York to Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the Pravda newspaper in Russia ran an article saying we are entering into a new Ice Age.