Scientist slams Google carbon claims

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 13 Jan 2009 at 08:25

The scientist who caused a furore by reportedly suggesting that two Google searches generates the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle has distanced himself from the claims.

Harvard physicist Alex Wissner-Gross says the story that appeared in The Sunday Times was misleading as his study never mentioned Google.

"For some reason, in their story on the study, The Times had an axe to grind with Google," Wissner-Gross tells 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 website."

"Everything online has a definite environmental impact. I think everybody can agree on that, including Google."

The scientist denied knowledge of the infamous kettle statistic, and claimed the newspaper had simply found a "really easy way to sell papers."

Google was prompt to respond to the story when it appeared, describing the quoted figure as "many times too high".

"In terms of greenhouse gases, one Google search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of CO2," the company says on its blog. "In the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than Google uses to answer your query."