This is a green website

For what it is worth, see the bottom of the left hand column:

CO2Stats is a free tool that monitors and offsets your blog or web site's carbon dioxide emissions by calculating how much power your visitors are consuming to view it. For each pound of CO2 resulting from your site traffic, The CO2Stats Project purchases carbon offsets that benefit the environment. ...

Here is the website: http://www.co2stats.com.

Hat tip: Aaron Schiff

Comments

[robertdfeinman]

I have no idea what this site is about. The web server runs continuously whether anyone visits it or not. It is estimated that all such servers in the US now consume several percent of the national electricity.

The same is true for the viewer's side. Many people leave their computers on continuously whether they are using them or not. Even when they are "off" many continue to require power to maintain the state of the machine and run the internal clock and the like.

Improving the efficiency of servers is one of the areas where the big firms are now engaged in the most active competition. Not only do the server farms use all this power, they require expensive cooling systems to keep them from overheating. A small change in power usage can have a large impact in the cost of establishing a new data center.

Let's not forget that the communications infrastructure (the "tubes") also runs continuously.

Strange that no one ever discusses the energy use of the broadcast industry. How many 50,000 watt radio stations do we have in this country? (This is "effective" radiated power, but it's still significant and TV usage is higher.)

I just don't buy the idea of offsets. If you want to make a difference then just use less. Don't buy peace of mind by greenwashing. You can plant trees, but you can't put the oil back into the ground.

[odograph]

I think offsets are ok, when you have some argument for additionally. Come to think of it, I still might be running on one of the tax-deductible personal offsets.

That said, I look forward to getting an eee pc (asus) and knocking my low ($15/mo) power bill a little lower.

[Duncan Brown]

But ... Nothing is "free." Have you looked into where and how they are offsetting you?