Monday 12 January 2009

Google searches: a new CO2 emissions category?

The Times Online is reporting that each time I search Google, it generates about 7g of CO2.

That still means I'd have to do 143 searches to generate one single kg of CO2, but it's an interesting statistic. I'm counting, today, how many times I do a Google search. I'm up to 10 already, and it's not even midday.

The article also namechecks a couple more count-your-CO2-here sites. I think I need an iPhone app.

My favourite quote from the article: "...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." I assume they mean a person living in Brazil.



2 comments:

Morgan said...

I hope you're right, otherwise that's some seriously energy intensive wax.

Carolyn said...

Yeah, they'd have to

1. Dig the oil out of the ground using oil-burning machines
2. Use more oil-burning machines to, um, squish the oil into diamonds?
3. Use more oil-burning machines to grind the diamonds into dust and rub off all the sharp edges
4. Put the soft diamond dust in wax.
5. ???
6. Profit!

I think I just invented the next indulgence for the mega-rich.