>From the site, CO2stats.com, it looks like not only does the service look at the client side electricity but also the computers using Google search to calculate the total footprint. I guess that begs the question whether Google is responsible for less efficient computers executing searches, and also, it explains why the articles mention desktop computers as opposed to laptops, netbooks or even mobile phones, which would most likely use less power, unless you start factoring in the power needed to sustain the various networks.
http://www.co2stats.com/about.php That also explains the difference between 7g and 0.2g. Google is looking at its power usage, not the average power consumption of random computer running a search. best, k On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 5:31 PM, Frankie Roberto <[email protected] > wrote: > > On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Dirk-Willem van Gulik < > [email protected]> wrote: > > >> > Does anyone have the working for this? I would LOVE to see it, given >> that >> > (for a start): >> >> No - but willing to guess that they either took the total energy >> consumption and divided it - or took a reasonable number x number of >> servers; assumed 100watt and took it from there. >> > > It's not quite clear how he worked it out - all the news stories say is > that he's submitted his findings for [possible] future inclusion in a > publication from the US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. > > The BBC story seems to suggest that he may have included the carbon cost of > the requesting client computer within the calculation ("Speaking to the BBC, > he said a combination of clients, networks, servers and people's home > computers all added up to a lot of energy usage") - but that quote may have > been taken out of context. > > Leo Hickman at the Guardian has done a reasonable job at trying to get the > bottom of the figures (and notes the conflict of interest): > http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/jan/12/carbon-emissions-google > > > Frankie > > -- > Frankie Roberto > Experience Designer, Rattle > 0114 2706977 > http://www.rattlecentral.com >
