• The (London) Sunday Times/TechCrunch , Monday, January 12, 2009 12 PM

Over the weekend, the most popular story on TechMeme, an aggregator of technology news, was this piece from the The (London) Sunday Times on the environmental impact of Google searches. The report quoted a Harvard physicist who said that a single search generates 7g of CO2, versus around 15g for a tea kettle. This, he said, constitutes a "definite environmental impact."

While there's no doubt Google consumes a massive amount of energy, TechCrunch's Jason Kincaid tries to put a little perspective on things. He points out that a single book commands about 2,500 grams of CO2, and a single cheeseburger has a carbon footprint of around 3,600 grams-more than350 and 500 times larger than a Google search, respectively.

Then there are the ways in which Google might actually be helping to save the environment. For example, think about how many trips to the library have been saved across the country because people can usually find what they're looking for on Google. Google also saves car trips by providing search and mapping tools to help people arrange taking public transportation. It also helps the environmentally-conscious find Web sites that help them be even more environmentally conscious. So, while the Times piece isn't factually incorrect, Kincaid points out that it's rather alarmist to say that searching on Google is destroying the planet.

Read the whole story at The (London) Sunday Times/TechCrunch »