According to an article on the TimesOnline, a study by Harvard University's Alex Wissner-Gross, two Google searches generates around 7 grams of CO2, approximately the amount required to boil a kettle for a cup of tea. The entire report on the TimesOnline can be viewed here.

The report, however, was said to be hugely exaggerated, in which it was refuted by both Google and researcher Wissner-Gross, the former stating that a google search creates about 0.2 grams of CO2 with the bulk of the estimated 7 grams coming from a user's own computer. The latter himself said that his study was aimed at general internet usage and that on average, visiting a website creates 0.02 grams of CO2 per second.

So what does this mean to us? Should we pay no heed to the articles above, or should we pause to ponder when we hit that "Enter" button? It's one thing to say "The search must go on", owing to our reliance on the internet for information. Its another to discount the fact that low carbon footprint doesn't equal to no carbon footprint. After all, the carbon footprint of the IT industry is roughly the equivalent of the aviation industry, about 2%. Thats a lot considering all the buzz about not taking planes and stuff.

And while Gaia doesn't kill a panda for every google search, we as end-users do need to be aware of and actively reduce the carbon footprint of each internet session. Here are a few tips to do so:

1. Don't you hate it when website loading slows to a crawl? Well, close it! Unless its necessary to get to that piece of information, the longer you wait for a website to load the more energy you waste. Come back when its a little faster (that means the servers are a little less loaded).
2. Offset that internet session. Jason Kincaid from Techcrunch has a simple but effective idea. The carbon footprint from a burger is around 3600 grams, over 500 times larger than a Google search. Skip that meat once in a while and the internet and the environment roughly evens out.
   
3. Know your computer! The worst thing someone can do is build a supercomputer with the intent of only surfing the internet. If your intent is purely to surf with no need for hardcore graphics for gaming, get a less powerful system. Its good for the environment as well as your pocket.
4. If you need that information, save it! One of the most efficient ways to stop wastage from websurfing is just not to surf at all, but face it, most of us aren't able to do so. However, if you're constantly going onto the internet to search for the same data, saving it onto your computer might just do the trick.

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