Google points out that cloud computing is "green"

[Undertoad]

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/...-in-cloud.html

... switching to Gmail can be almost 80 times more energy efficient (PDF) than running in-house email. This is because cloud-based services are typically housed in highly efficient data centers that operate at higher server utilization rates and use hardware and software that’s built specifically for the services they provide—conditions that small businesses are rarely able to create on their own.

I never thought of that. But it's obviously true, and Google points out that there are 4 million businesses using Google's efficient server farms for their email instead of running their own, generally inefficient and ill-considered servers, which all obviously run 24x7.

You’d have to watch YouTube for three straight days for our servers to consume the amount of energy required to manufacture, package and ship a single DVD.

I'm not an internet addict. I'm an environmentalist.