• by Gaetano Pollice , February 2, 2009

Despite your best intentions, your Google search for sweatshop-free socks spun of organic cotton isn't helping the environment as much as you'd like. That's because a typical Google search generates 7 grams of carbon dioxide, the  gas responsible for global warming.

In fact, two Google searches nearly equals the amount of CO2 generated by boiling a teapot (15 grams), according to research by Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross. As reported by the UK's Sunday Times, blame Google's infrastructure - numerous servers process a single Google search, and they all require lots of energy.

Globally, it's estimated about 200 million Internet searches are typed in daily, and according to research firm Gartner, the Internet tech industry creates about 2 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, equalling the airline industry's CO2  output.