Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer generates about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea or coffee, according to research from Harvard University
physicist Alex Wissner-Gross, whose studies on the environmental impact of computing is scheduled for release soon.
The article ran in (the London) Times Online, which prompted Google execs to respond on the company's
official blog.
Wissner-Gross's research suggests viewing one Web page generates "about 0.02g of CO2 per second. This rises tenfold to about 0.2g of CO2 a second when viewing a
website with complex images, animations or videos," according to the Times Online. While Google is secretive about its energy consumption, it has joined the Environmental Protection Agency,
along with Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lenovo, IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo and Sun Microsystems, and others to find ways to slash 90% of computer energy by 2010. Urs H"lzle,, which commented on the
study and article on The Official Google Blog, writes that Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, invested $45 million in clean energy technologies last year.
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