Is the Internet Hurting Our Environment? [INFOGRAPHIC]

This “infograph” provides some interesting facts in a nicely packaged aesthetic. However, the analogies, such as “3,900,000 kWh is equivalent to 5.57 million loads of laundry” is not really a relevant context and quite misleading.

A more relevant analogy might be to say that Google’s monthly searches use 3,900,000 kWh or enough to power about 353 homes in the U.S. per year (based on the avg. US home consuming 11,040 kWh per year according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration). When you put it in that context, one can quickly deduce that Google searches use as much kWh of electricity per year to power 4,236 homes, which isn’t really significant at all.

I only point this out because I am a huge fan of Cleantechnica.com (it is my homepage) and posting clever charts are nice to look at, but actually can provide more ammunition for climate skeptics against your cause than useful information for those seeking insight. It isn’t far from “green washing” in that it misleading and provides a lack of substance. When stuff like this spreads, it can have a counter-productive consequence.

I’d like to see an analogy here that shows how much paper is saved by the Internet (regardless of those who do/do not commute from home). In other words, how many trees are spared, and kWh not used to process, transport etc. those trees due to the Internet- not to mention the resulting CO2 benefits that trees provide.

Keep up the good articles and leave these to charts to the wannabe-green companies looking to cash on at the expense of perpetuating ignorance among the masses.