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Program Tracks Web's CO2 Emissions

Raising consciousness of how the Internet impacts climate change

By Laila Weir,  Newser User

Posted Nov 16, 2007 5:43 PM CST

(Newser) – If you're reading this, you're contributing to climate change. That's the message of two PhD students who have created a widget to calculate how much carbon dioxide Web sites generate. Operators can download and install the free program on their sites and then buy an equivalent amount of carbon offsets, reports the San Jose Mercury News.

The creators say the Internet causes the release of more than 100 billion pounds of Co2
 per year. The widget calculates how much electricity goes into powering the servers running a site as well as the computers of people accessing that site. The software, launched Oct. 24, is now on 251 sites.

A herd of elephants walk backdropped by Mt. Kilimanjaro in Amboseli game park in Kenya in this May 21, 2006 file photo. Global warming isn't just a matter of melting ice bergs and polar bears chasing after them. It's also Lake Chad drying up, the glaciers of Mt. Kilimanjaro disappearing,...
A herd of elephants walk backdropped by Mt. Kilimanjaro in Amboseli game park in Kenya in this May 21, 2006 file photo. Global warming isn't just a matter of melting ice bergs and polar bears chasing...   (Associated Press)
The glacier field is seen from the route to the North Ridge of K2 in the Xinjiang Province of China. Mountaineers are bringing back firsthand accounts of vanishing glaciers, melting ice routes, crumbling rock formations and flood-prone lakes where glaciers once rose. The observations are transforming a growing number of...
The glacier field is seen from the route to the North Ridge of K2 in the Xinjiang Province of China. Mountaineers are bringing back firsthand accounts of vanishing glaciers, melting ice routes, crumbling...   (Associated Press)
Sunflower Electric Cooperative's coal-fired power plant churns out electricity in this Friday, Feb. 2, 2007 file photo in Holcomb, Kan.  Sunflower and state lawmakers are vowing to challenge the rejection of a permit for two coal-fired power plants in Kansas where the state's top environmental regulator cited emissions of carbon...
Sunflower Electric Cooperative's coal-fired power plant churns out electricity in this Friday, Feb. 2, 2007 file photo in Holcomb, Kan. Sunflower and state lawmakers are vowing to challenge the rejection...   (Associated Press)
In this photo made available by Greenpeace, activists unfurl a banner on giant storage tanks of palm oil, during efforts to block a tanker which is loading over 30,000 tons of palm oil, from leaving the port of Dumai, in Riau province, Friday Nov. 16, 2007 in Sumatra, Indonesia....
In this photo made available by Greenpeace, activists unfurl a banner on giant storage tanks of palm oil, during efforts to block a tanker which is loading over 30,000 tons of palm oil, from leaving the...   (Associated Press)
Greenpeace activists carry a giant tableaux of a carbon dioxide spewing dragon during a campaign at Kuta beach, Bali, Indonesia Monday, June, 4, 2007. Greenpeace protested against coal industry gathering in Bali, demanding that organizers of the meeting stop paddling coal amidst worsening climate impacts predicted to hit the poorest...
Greenpeace activists carry a giant tableaux of a carbon dioxide spewing dragon during a campaign at Kuta beach, Bali, Indonesia Monday, June, 4, 2007. Greenpeace protested against coal industry gathering...   (Associated Press)
An image from An Inconvenient Truth.  The film presents Al Gore's case about the dangers of global warming. (AP Photo/Paramount Classics, Eric Lee)
An image from "An Inconvenient Truth." The film presents Al Gore's case about the dangers of global warming. (AP Photo/Paramount Classics, Eric Lee)   (Associated Press)
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