Thursday, 03 July 2008
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Google: Good or Evil When It Comes to the Environment?
Google's motto is "Don't be evil." But when it comes to its environmental impact, some think the company can't live up to its own hype.Now that it has unseated Microsoft as Earth's most recognizable and influential technology behemoth, Google has gone from a crowd-favorite upstart to an octopus multinational beneath the bull's-eye. As such, its innovations in search, advertising, video, open sourcing, communications, computing and beyond have taken a backseat to legitimate concerns over everything from its impossible motto, "Don't Be Evil," to its carbon footprint. And while the former is a terminological chimera, the latter is an increasing problem for a planet that is practically warming by the day, due to a lethal combination of explosive global growth, rampant carbon dioxide emissions and lackluster world policy.
To mangle the cliche, the evil is in the details.
According to a recent Harper's annotation on Google's expansion, "In 2006, American data centers consumed more power than American televisions." That number is sure to rise, possibly exponentially, as Google breeds these data centers, or "server farms," like rabbits. And the company is far from alone: AT&T, Microsoft, Yahoo and more are building out their infrastructures to accommodate the millions who are coming online and sharing not just lightweight information like email but also heavier content like video, images and audio.
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