Comments on: Harvard physicist says “never mind” on Google energy use

By: jgogek

jgogek — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:11:56 +0000

But there is a big problem with IT’s carbon footprint, which is as big as the airline industry and getting bigger. Consider:

Each network router produces 20 tons of CO2 per year, each printer 10 tons and each PC or laptop 4 tons.

As computer equipment becomes more sophisticated, energy usage per computer server rack is growing. It is climbing from 2 kilowatts in 2000 to 30 kilowatts in 2010.

Every dollar spent on power for IT equipment requires another dollar on cooling, roughly the equivalent to double the cost of the hardware itself over three years.

Cyberinfrastructure accounts for more than half of the typical 200,000 to 500,000 metric tons of emitted CO2 at U.S. universities.

UC San Diego is holding a symbosium on cleaning up IT’s dirty footprint.
Check it out at http://greeninternet.calit2.net/index.php

UC San Diego greenest university blog: http://greenestuniversity.blogspot.com/

By: Lamont

Lamont — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:18:36 +0000

I ran the numbers based on my experience at Amazon and how many servers they run, took Alexa’s numbers on Amazon % page rank (0.2% of page views) and some other global internet stats and found:

total worldwide internet energy consumption = 0.1% of total US energy consumption
average internet user power consumption/yr = 22.5 kWh
average CO2 emissions per internet user/yr = 30 lbs / 13 kg
CO2 emissions per second = 158 mg/second
percent of average american CO2 emissions/yr = 0.07%

so, off by a factor of 8, but i spent about 15 minutes on it and made some fairly broad assumptions…. still insignificant….

By: hernadi-key

hernadi-key — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:49:32 +0000

come on join with me to fight GLOBAL WARMING..

http://hernadi-key.blogspot.com

By: paulm

paulm — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:08:21 +0000

We dont hear much on train solutions here joe????

Spain’s high-speed trains win over fed-up flyers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ world/ 2009/ jan/ 13/ spain-trains
sleek new high-speed trains have stolen hundreds of thousands of passengers from airlines over the last year, slashing carbon emissions and marking a radical change in the way Spaniards travel.

Passenger numbers on fuel-guzzling domestic flights fell 20% in the year to November as commuters and tourists swapped cramped airline seats for the space and convenience of the train, according to figures released yesterday.

High-speed rail travel – boosted by the opening of a line that slashed the journey time from Madrid to Barcelona to 2 hours 35 minutes in February – grew 28% over the same period. About 400,000 travellers shunned airports and opted for the 220mph AVE trains.

By: paulm

paulm — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:58:09 +0000

Airport protests are starting to takeoff!
When will the arrive in North America?

This has got to be one of the most effective ways to protest for climate!

The most British of protests
It’s cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off as flash mob protesters stage Heathrow third runway demonstration
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ environment/ blog/ 2009/ jan/ 12/ activists-travelandtransport

DCAN