I didn't know that, but now I do.

While reading my latest issue of OnEarth magazine (a quarterly publication from the NRDC), I came upon a small tidbit of information that seemed like something worth sharing. It made me a bit smarter, so hopefully it will do the same for you. I had heard some rumors surrounding this idea in the past that made me feel a bit guilty. However, after reading this, my love of searching the Internet can continue.

GOOGLE MY CO2 A disputatious blogger recently worked out that a typical Google search used half as much energy as boiling water for a cup of tea and produced 7 grams of CO2 emissions. It seemed like a classic piece of blogosphere silliness, but the company, which takes it commitment to energy efficiency very seriously, decided to crunch the numbers for itself. It found that the average search actually produces only 0.2 grams of CO2. For good measure, Google also calculated that producing a single cheeseburger generates as much CO2 as 15,000 searches. And to equal the CO2 emissions from the monthly electricity use of an average U.S. household, you’d have to hit that search key 3.1 million times. So click away! (Source: OnEarth, Fall 2009)

Mottainai.