Via The Englishman, this:
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.
You would think that they had better things to do with their time…
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.”
CO2 is not a poison, it is essential for the survival of plant life, it is a part of the eco system. Unless these people want us to go back to a medieval agrarian system – or better still, hunter gathering – everything we do has an environmental impact.
So, if I want to use a search engine to look something up – I will.
What I will not do is change what I do in response to yet another eco-scare story.
If your internet use is in place of more energy-intensive activities, such as driving your car to the shops, that’s good. But if it is adding activities and energy consumption that would not otherwise happen, that may pose problems.
No, it will not – because how I live my life is none of your damned business. That said, I prefer shopping online to physical shopping as it avoids the journey, it avoids the parking, it avoids the crowds and the queues and is generally more efficient when shopping around for the best deal.
Apparently Twitter comes in for a broadside, too:
Such internet phenomena are not simply fun and hot air, Newcombe warns: the boom in such services has a carbon cost.
Oh, do fuck off!
There is a comment on this piece from Gary Pate who asks a reasonable question:
Can the GW hysteria get any more insane?
Oh, I’m sure it can.
“Unless these people want us to go back to a medieval agrarian system – or better still, hunter gathering..”
They want YOU to do that. They, like Al Gore, the bloated Prince of AGW, will continue to swan around in their squillion square foot mansions. Or fly around the world to promote their latest book on how we are all going to die because we are wasteful scoundrels, like George Monbiot.
Which, of course, is why I will continue to treat their utterances with the utmost contempt.
Why not try selling the idiot ‘it’s all CO2’ lobby some form of heavy duty soda lime based devices to ‘get rid of poisonous co2’ from their homes. Then watch as their house plants wither.
Of course there are physiological effects if you breathe too low a concentration of CO2 over a prolonged period. Impaired gas exchange in the lungs, and all that entails.
As Paracelsus pointed out, the poison is in the dose.
The market is way ahead of them. Data centres have changed their charging method from space to power consumed becuase that all those blade servers increase power and reduce space. They are also looking at ways of saving power, which they dress up as green policies:
http://polizeros.com/2007/05/17/data-centers-go-green/
“The company [IBM] has aptly titled this initiative Project Big Green, and claims that it will enable the average 25,000-square-foot data center to cut its energy bills by 42 percent.”
“Companies such as Google, which has quietly rolled out a massive network of advanced data centres, have built new plants on the banks of large rivers to harness hydroelectric power.”
“One of the most dramatic advances perhaps are the new Sun T1000 servers. They are the most energy efficient ever, using about the power of a light bulb, a mere 72 watts per processor, resulting in huge savings on electricity and cooling.”
But I suppose their is no kudos for eco fascists when business acts out of self interest before they are ordered to.
We are all dead meat.
So, with that in mind, why don’t they just fuck off and die?
(sups pint)
That should do it.