[artinfo] internet's carbon footprint

[Patrice Riemens]

The internet's increasing appetite for electricity poses a major threat to
companies such as Google, according to scientists and industry executives.
Many internet companies are
struggling to manage the costs of delivering billions of web pages, videos
and files online - in a "perfect storm" that could even threaten the
future of the internet itself.
"In an energy-constrained world, we cannot continue to grow the footprint
of the internet - we need to rein in the energy consumption," said Subodh
Bapat, vice-president at Sun Microsystems, one of the world's largest
manufacturers of web servers.
Bapat said the network of web servers and data centres that store online
information is becoming more expensive, while profits come under pressure
as a result of the recession.
"We need more data centres, we need more servers. Each server burns more
watts than the previous generation and each watt costs more," he said. "If
you compound all of these trends, you have the perfect storm."

With more than 1.5 billion people online around the world, scientists
estimate that the energy footprint of the net is growing by more than 10%
each year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/may/03/internet-carbon-footprint