Google points out that cloud computing is "green"

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/gmail-its-cooler-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.

Very interesting.

Undertoad wrote:

You’d have to watch YouTube for three straight days

Also, if you could click on a few of those Google Ads while you're on your YouTube bender, well gosh, that'd be great too...

You’d have to watch YouTube for three straight days for

Challenge accepted.

3 Days? Amateur.

Without using the bathroom?

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 still using Office 2003 and Quicken 2004, so I figure I'm way past the break-even point.

It's still just the "big computer in the sky"

But now when a virtual fuse blows, half the business world can go dark...

We could all start using http://Blackle.com instead of directly using Google! in order to save energy.

Blackle is a website powered by Google Custom Search and created by Heap Media, which aims to save energy by displaying a black background and using grayish-white font color for search results.[3] Blackle claims saving almost 2.67 million watt-hours of energy,[4] a claim currently under dispute.[5]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackle.com

Blackle only saves energy if you're using a CRT monitor, in which case, you're being very gren by carrying old technology.

With LCD monitors, the backlight is on all the time, making the screen by default white, and it uses more power to make a pixel go black.