The article I read was about Google releasing is its energy usage for the first time. This cleared up claims made about Google’s energy use in 2009, and laid out all the facts about their online services and how much energy they really use. The levels of energy used were up to standards in the United Nations. There was an accusation in 2009 that every Google search had a carbon footprint of 7 grams of carbon dioxide. Google stated that many of the factors were not within their control, such as ones personal computer, and revealed the actual figure to be only 0.2 grams on their part. Google says it uses 1.5 metric tonnes of carbon annually, and that its data centers use only one half of the average. The article also stated that the internet is estimated to be in hundreds of millions of tonnes, or the same as a large industrialized country. Google estimates that data centers are responsible for about 1% of the world's electricity use, and that Google is responsible for about 1% of that amount.
The Carbon footprint is a global problem, or a measurement of a global problem, because it measures the emission of greenhouse gases into the environment. Greenhouse gases basically cause more heat to become trapped in the environment, and in turn can cause climate changes. While Google’s levels were not over what they should be according to the United Nations, I was actually surprised that their services, or much less the internet, really accounted for that much energy at all. I think Google did the right thing by releasing this information and was glad to see that they seem to be trying to use less energy, for instance with the Cloud services which can be 80 times less polluting as traditional alternatives. Also they are purchasing more electricity from renewable sources. Google does however say that its Carbon Footprint has increased since last year due to the growing number of users and online services. However, I think they are taking the right steps in order to reduce their carbon footprint, and should continue seeking alternatives and doing what they currently are doing. I think it would be good if other large scale online services would release their energy use reports as well.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/08/google-carbon-footprint
1 comment:
Wow i had no idea that this was even happening. I had to google the definition of carbon footprint and as i did so i thought of the irony (haha). I learned that electricity contributes to 12 percent of the worlds total carbon footprint. I agree with your conclusion about the article in that it would be nothing but beneficial for large companies such as google to release their energy use reports.
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