Super Eco

Photo credit: DeclanTM, Flickr

If you thought you were saving trees and energy by getting your news online, think again. In an inimitably British comparison, the UK's Times Online reports that 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. A mere pittance? Industry analyst  Gartner heartily disagrees, reporting that the global IT industry is generating as much greenhouse gas as the airline industry—about 2% of worldwide CO2 emissions.

Google disagrees that it's a gobbler.  Yet, every minute that ticks by while you're online means more energy used and more CO2 produced. Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross calculates that viewing a simple web page generates about 0.02g of CO2 per second—a total that soars to 0.2g of CO2 a second for pages containing complex images, animations or videos. Other experts estimate that an hour of computer time generates some 40g-80g of CO2.

In fact, Swedish research indicates that reading a printed newspaper is greener than reading the news online, but using an e-reader such as the Kindle is greener still. The key to greener computer use it to make sure you are using to it actually replace (and therefore eliminate) other resources. If you get the news online instead of buying a newspaper every day, you may (depending on your usage patterns) save some energy. But if you're adding activities you wouldn't otherwise engage in—say, endless Facebook updates or Twittering—your online carbon footprint will be looking pretty sooty.