Every time you search on Google, the Earth will be more contaminated like this

Every time you search for something on Google, the planet you live in suffers a bit of damage. To be able to handle 3.5 billion searches a day, Google is responsible for 40% of the total carbon footprint released by the Internet.

We still know most of the Internet today is 'cloud computing ', but clouds are fragile, clean, and harmless. However, the "cloud" we are talking about is a bit dark: it is the millions of network servers in countless data processing centers around the world , connected by underground cable systems. under the sea. The entire network infrastructure consumes a lot of electricity a year, but the energy source is also a major source of carbon dioxide emissions.

A 2015 study showed that the amount of carbon emissions emitted by the Internet is comparable to the global aviation emissions.

'Data is heavily polluted' , Joana Moll, a researcher with a focus on work is the environmental impact of the Internet. In 2015, to visually describe the emissions Google emits, Joana Moll created this site:

Google.com has released 5615.41 kg of CO2 since you turned this site on.

'Almost no one remembers that the Internet is a network of connections for a range of infrastructure, built from very real natural materials,' wrote Ms. Moll. 'How does that obvious fact fade away in social illusion?'.

The CO2GLE website uses network traffic data since 2015, based on the assumption that Google.com handles 47,000 search requests per second, which is equivalent to emitting 500kg of CO2 per second. That's about 10 grams of CO2 each time. Moll said this number is an estimate, but when the Quartz news page directly asked Google about the numbers on CO2GLE, the tech giant did not reject the calculations.

In fact, Google has estimated in 2019 that each search request generates 0.2 grams of CO2 emissions.

A Google spokesperson also shares with Quartz: providing services to one person in a month is equivalent to the amount of emissions a car makes when traveling 1 mile, equivalent to 225.43 grams / km.

Each search request generates 0.2 grams of CO2 emissions.

Despite having such a number of parents, scientists still cannot determine the exact amount of emissions emitted by the world's leading search engines. Estimates from the British government show that the amount of CO2 emitted somewhere between 1 gram and 10 grams; The maximum point is to include the amount of CO2 emitted when turning on the computer, and the minimum score (data available in 2009) is even higher than Google's estimates (released in 2009) and Moll's (launched in 2015). .

Google understands how its operations affect the environment, but in the Internet age, Google is an indispensable vital link. So they understand, either Google has to innovate, or they will die on the planet as well: Google designs energy efficient data centers, invests heavily in clean, much-put energy. emissions reduction program.

Since 2007, a Google spokesman has declared them a carbon neutral company, meaning they use renewable energy and reduce emissions much enough to compensate for carbon emissions. But the truth is still there, Google is constantly discharging emissions whenever people use their services.

This past year, in the event of how technology transforms our lives takes place in Barcelona, ​​Joana Moll created another website, showing us visually: for every second you open Google. , 23 plants have used up their CO2.

DEFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOREST website after 20 seconds.

The subject of Moll's research is often Google because the scale of this online search service is too huge, but not so we forget the other 'emissions champions' , which can tell Facebook well. Amazon. These two companies are also self-aware of what they do, and also take carbon steps other than Google.

'My real goal is to make viewers think, be aware of the tangibility of data and how we still use the Internet , ' Moll said. 'Calculating CO2 that the Internet emits is very complicated. This is probably the largest infrastructure system ever built by humans and a combination of too many factors . But there are still numbers that can make people care about the scary state. '