File this one next to the sea kittens
Guilt is a powerful emotion and propagandists never hesitate to use it, even when they risk being silly.
Earlier this week we had the PETA people claiming that fish are not fish but kittens of the sea.
Today some physicist with time on his hands and a need to publish claims that performing two Google searches uses up as much energy as boiling the kettle for a cup of tea:
While millions of people tap into Google without considering the environment, a typical search generates about 7g of CO2 Boiling a kettle generates about 15g. “Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power,” said Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist whose research on the environmental impact of computing is due out soon. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact.”
The hyphenated Alex also claims,
viewing a simple web page generates about 0.02g of CO2 per second. This rises tenfold to about 0.2g of CO2 a second when viewing a website with complex images, animations or videos.
Blame it on Al Gore.
I won’t dare calculate how much methane the hyphenated physicist emitted while doing his study but considering that my yard has over a dozen trees, I’m willing to bet my carbon offset is bigger than his.
Now excuse me while I Google, watch a few YouTubes, have some kippers for breakfast and start the tea kettle.
UPDATE
I {heart} Chris Muir.
Update 2
What do sea kittens eat?
Off-topic: Shiny happy dhimmi – #8 for Carnival goodness.
Tags: Fausta's blog
January 11th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Do you think this jerk rations his toilet paper? Or does he recycle his unread publications?
January 11th, 2009 at 10:51 am
[...] Fausta Weighs in here: I won’t dare calculate how much methane the hyphenated physicist emitted while doing his study but considering that my yard has over a dozen trees, I’m willing to bet my carbon offset is bigger than his. [...]
January 11th, 2009 at 11:03 am
I like the way you worked the sea kittens in. LOL!
January 11th, 2009 at 11:09 am
[...] Fausta: Guilt is a powerful emotion and propagandists never hesitate to use it, even when they risk being silly. (Sea kittens is also mentioned) [...]
January 11th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
[...] The official blog of Fausta’s Blog Talk Radio show. « File this one next to the sea kittens [...]
January 11th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
You know, I think he’s serious…
A Harvard researcher has discovered that two performing two searches on Google generates as much CO2 (A greenhouse gas! AAAIIIEEEE!!!!) as making a cup of tea: Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount……
January 12th, 2009 at 8:55 am
[...] Some nimrod is complaining about the environmental impact of Google, which means that he’s really going to have his knickers knotted when he happens upon this more-or-less weekly feature. Sometimes life is good. [...]
January 12th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Gracias,Fausta!