Harvard Physicist Sets Record Straight on Internet Carbon Study.

Harvard Physicist Sets Record Straight on Internet Carbon Study. A Harvard researcher spent much of Monday setting the record straight about his research and how it relates to Google's energy consumption. A Sunday Times of London story reported that conducting two Google searches generates as much carbon dioxide as boiling water, though the researcher denies singling out Google.

A story in the Sunday Times of London sent Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) public relations machine into an advanced search for answers. The Times reporters wrote about a new Harvard study that examines the energy impact of Web searches. The story's lead paragraph: "Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research."
One problem: the study's author, Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross, says he never mentions Google in the study. "For some reason, in their story on the study, the Times had an ax to grind with Google," Wissner-Gross told TechNewsWorld. "Our work has nothing to do with Google. Our focus was exclusively on the Web overall, and we found that it takes on average about 20 milligrams of CO2 per second to visit a Web site. And the example involving tea kettles? "They did that. I have no idea where they got those statistics," Wissner-Gross said.

The Times story is giving Google a chance to talk about the company's green initiatives and its efforts to pursue cleaner energy technologies on several fronts. Google spokesperson Jamie Yood said there's an acknowledgment that Google is using energy and on the business front it makes sense to get this energy cost as low as possible. Google takes exception on its Official Google blog to the statistics quoted in the Times story regarding the energy used to Web search vs. boiling a kettle of water. A speedy search uses less energy, the company claims; about the same amount of energy as the human body uses in about 10 seconds. Google has asked to see a copy of the study, and Wissner-Gross says he is more than happy to send them one.

Greenpeace doesn't really focus on the energy efficiencies used by Google or Web companies in general, said spokesperson Daniel Kessler. It is more focused on electronics products, the toxic materials used and company recycling initiatives. However, Google gets high marks for its green efforts in Washington D.C. Google's data centers burn through a lot of energy in the course of providing answers to search queries around the world, and the cheapest form of that energy right now is coal, said Roger Kay, principal at Endpoint Technologies Associates, who keeps a close eye on the environmental policies at IT companies. Google through its traffic management knows a lot of people are interested in the location of the information needed in a Web search may also play a part, Kay said.

Source : TechNewsworld
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