Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, reported the Sunday Times. There’s no need to tell you which Times, since the quantification is so very English.
Many kettles could have been boiled with the heat and other energy used in the reaction to the article. Om asked: Why Pick On Google? How Green Are We The People? and provides evidence that Google strives harder for efficiency than do most of us. From Google itself comes further context.
a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that your body burns in ten seconds… the average car driven for one kilometer (0.6 miles for those of in the U.S.) produces as many greenhouse gases as a thousand Google searches.
So the “cup of tea” quantification is as misleading as it is English. I was going to close with the environmental impact of the pot of coffee I’ve just made, but that would probably have involved Google searches…