Jury is out over whether Google costs the earth

By Claire Ayles

Press coverage of the tech sector has had somewhat of a green hue so far this year, kicking off with the Consumer Electronics Association announcement that around two thirds of consumers want to buy ‘environmentally friendly’ technology, and half of these are willing to pay more money for the privilege.  While it’s important to point out that some of this research did take place before consumer spending went down the swanny, it’s fair to say that most of us would prefer the tech industry to pollute less.

 

But are tech firms really up to the challenge of delivering green IT?  The Sunday Times is pretty sure they’re not.  Its 11 January edition included an exposé on how much CO2 the IT sector was spewing out into the atmosphere and the conclusion was bleak:  the industry is just a hair’s breadth behind the aeronautical sector in the race to become the world’s principal polluter.   

Cast as the principle villain was Google.  According to the research that formed the basis of the story, each Google search produces seven grams of CO2, that’s half what’s produced when you boil a kettle.

For a tea drinking Google addict like me, this is certainly worrying news... or is it?  Seems as if The Sunday Times’ story may not have been totally accurate.  The reporter’s main source, Harvard University’s Alex Wissner-Gross, has since refuted that he specifically commented on Google, and the search giant itself has criticised the story, stating that carbon dioxide emissions per search are around the 0.2 gram mark.  

While it obviously does matter how much CO2 Google – and the rest of the tech sector – emits, I’d argue that even the highest estimates have to be better than the alternative:  not using technology.  If we couldn’t use technology to communicate it’s safe to say we’d fly more, use more petrol and cut down more trees – and what would be the environmental cost of all that?