To me Google is tech God. I would be among those "firsts" to try any product with Google brand name on it. I have two versions of GTalk installed in my laptop – one normal version and another lab version (which has that invisible mode plus some other interesting features). With that disclaimer, I will now get into the crux of the issue I wanted to discuss.
Of late Google has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. People have started nicking the company “Google, the Evil”. And Sunday Times created a furor recently that prompted Google to issue an unofficial reply through its official blog! The paper reported a study by Harvard University Physics Prof. Alex Wissner-Gross on the environmental impact we (Yes. We Googlers!) make by using Google as our search engine. His report suggested that making a couple of “Google” searches are just as bad for the environment as making a cup of tea or coffee. He says that the energy needed to power Google’s servers and storage, combined with connecting to and running our laptops and other search devices, created about 7 grams of Carbon-dioxide emissions per search. Means the carbon emissions from two Google searches does pollute the environment the same way boiling a kettle of tea does. But considering the number of Google users worldwide and considering that we google for “everything”, Google’s impact on the environment is harsh, the study claims.
Let us guesstimate some numbers. Say, I perform about 40 searches a day; that’s 15,000 Google searches per year (sounds scary when you put it like that). My annual carbon footprint through Google would be 105kg of CO2 (0.15 tons).
I fail to understand how a great brain like Prof. Alex Gross concluded that Google’s impact on the environment is harsh, without considering the opportunity cost of that particular search. Let us consider that we want to find a a book and we make two Google searches to find that book. As per Professor Gross, this generates 7 grams of Carbon which impacts the environment. Now let us consider Google (or any other search engine for that reason) doesn’t exist. What would have been our alternative – nothing but buy the book. In comes our environmental impact we created due to cutting down the trees to make the paper, chemicals we use to bleach the paper and the sludge we leave out polluting the environment. I am sure that the impact would be much bigger than downloading the book through a “Google search “.
Let us not blame Google for everything. I strongly feel that Google is now in the same position Microsoft was 15 years ago – being envied by everyone who are jealous of its stunning growth and are able to stop the Google juggernaut. While I agree that Information Technology sector would account for 2-3% of the total carbon emissions, we also need to consider the positive impact the sector has created to our lives. It has improved our lives faster than we would have thought of. So, instead of playing the blame game we should join forces to create equipments and devices that stores energy efficiently there by reducing the impact on the environment.
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