San Francisco— According to a recent study made by a Harvard researcher claims that carrying out just two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate an equivalent amount of harmful carbon dioxide as boiling an electric kettle for a cup of tea.
Google is being hard-pressed by the green thumb of researchers who say Google searches by hundreds of millions of people a day — and their need for speed — are taking a toll on the environment.
The study revealed that a typical search produces about seven grammes of CO2 as bringing water to a boil on your stovetop can harm the environment, whereas an electric kettle generates about 15 gm, The Sunday Times quoted a Harvard University physicist as saying.
US physicist Alex Wissner-Gross, the Harvard University professor that authored the report, says that even just browsing a basic Website can generate about 0.002g of CO2 for every second it is viewed. Sites with complex video can bring even more CO2 in the atmosphere, somewhere around 0.2g per second.
However, these figures were disputed by Google, that claims the Harvard study is flawed, and that one Google search equals just 0.2 grams of carbon. The Harvard study was first published in British newspaper The Sunday Times.
“The claims made in this article and the calculations this study makes are many times too high,” Google spokesperson James Yood said.
“A Google search has a definite environmental impact,” says Alex Wissner-Gross, whose research is due out soon.
The newspaper said: “Google operates huge data centers around the world that consume a great deal of power. Google is ‘secretive’ about its energy consumption and carbon footprint, and refuses to divulge the locations of its data centers that have a definite environmental impact.”
“However, with 200 million internet searches estimated globally daily, the electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions caused by computers and the internet is provoking concern,” the newspaper said.
Another study conducted by information technology analysts Gartner said the global IT industry generates as much greenhouse gas — which emits about 2 per cent of global carbon dioxide — as the airlines industry.
Google’s Urs Hölzle, senior vice president of operations, admits that the typical search returns results in less than 0.2 seconds, but said queries vary in degree of difficulty. For the average query, however, a server works on it for just a few thousandths of a second.
According to Hölzle, a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that a person’s body burns in 10 seconds. Google uses 0.0003 kWh of energy per search, or one kilojoule (kJ); the average adult needs about 8,000 kJ a day of energy from food.
The Google system, which sends search queries to several competing servers that may be thousands of miles apart, “minimizes delays but raises energy consumption”.
When it comes to greenhouse gases, one Google search equals about 0.2 grams of carbon, according to Google.
“The current EU standard for tailpipe emissions calls for 140 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven, but most cars do not reach that level yet,” said Hölzle. “Thus, the average car driven for one kilometer [0.6 miles] produces as many greenhouse gases as a thousand Google searches.”
Wissner-Gross has submitted his research for publication by the US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and has set up a website www.CO2stats.com.
“Google is very efficient but their primary concern is to make searches fast and that means they have a lot of extra capacity that burns energy,” the physicist said.
Google said, “We are among the most efficient of all internet search providers.”
Evan Mills, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, said: “Data centers are among the most energy-intensive facilities imaginable.”
Banks of servers storing billions of web pages require power both to run and cool them.
Google says it is in the forefront of green computing.
“We have committed to being carbon-neutral worldwide — that is, zero net emissions — for 2007 and beyond, by creating what we believe to be the most energy-efficient data centers in the world, using renewable energy sources and investing in high-quality carbon offset projects,” a Google Australia spokesman said yesterday.
“Fast, innovative products are crucial for our users and require significant computing power,” said Google’s Yood. “As a result, Google invests heavily in technical facilities and has dozens of facilities around the world with many computers.”
Yood, however, would not disclose exact numbers or locations of facilities or computers.
Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch, Rewiring the World, has calculated that maintaining a character in the Second Life virtual reality game requires 1752 kilowatt hours of electricity a year. That is almost as much used by the average Brazilian.
But Google is unhappy with the negative publicity the latest Harvard research. Just hours after the initial publishing, Google posted on their official blog an article explaining how they “have designed and built the most energy efficient data centers in the world,” calling Dr. Wissner-Gross’s research numbers “many times too high.” Google also says that driving a car for a kilometer (0.6 miles) equates to the same amount of CO2 produced by a thousand of your Google searches.
Google has servers in the US, Europe, Japan and China.