Warnings are being given about the little-known environmental impact of computer and internet use.
Harvard University academic, Dr Alex Wissner-Gross, who is leading research into the environmental impact of IT comments, "Websites are provided by servers and are viewed by visitors' computers that are connected via networks. These servers, clients and networks all require electricity in order to run, electricity that is largely generated by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. When fossil fuels are burned, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, which contribute to climate change."
Moreover, Dr Wissner-Gross believes that Google's unique structure, which sees it send searches to multiple servers around the world and give which ever response is returned quickest, causes its searches to produce more emissions than some other sites.
He said, "Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power. Google are very efficient but their primary concern is to make searches fast and that means they have a lot of extra capacity that burns energy."
Chris Goodall, author of "Ten technologies to save the planet", said that assuming the user spends 15 minutes on their computer, the carbon emission of a Google search is between 7 and 10 grams.
Google have responded by stating that they are among the most efficient of all internet search providers and that this number was "many times too high". They claim one Google search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of carbon dioxide.
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