
Two Google searches 'produce same CO2 as boiling a kettle' - nreece
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/google/4217055/Two-Google-searches-produce-same-CO2-as-boiling-a-kettle.html
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astrec
Sounds like rubbish to me, but naively speaking:

If a 2000w kettle takes 2 minutes to boil it uses 2000w x (2/60) hrs = 66.67
watt-hours.

If a google search requires my laptop at 150w, 10 network appliances at 200w
and 10 google servers at 200w and front to back a query takes 1 second then a
query uses 4150w x (1/60/60) hrs = 1.16 watt-hours.

Or have I got that wrong?

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cperciva
So what? Cycling to work produces more CO2 than boiling a few L of water, too.

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cgranade
Those figures sound suspect to me, given the immense volume of searches
performed on Google. I would guess that there's some double-counting going on.

All else aside, figures like those are all derived on the assumption that
electricity is produced in a CO2 generating fashion. If we can figure out a
better means of power generation, then all of these contributors get better at
once.

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gravitycop
Discussion of Google's response, here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=430272>

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gravitycop
This is basically a dup.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=428606>

