Nerdy Science Blog

According to Dr Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist, making two searches through Google produce as much carbon dioxide emission as boiling a kettle.  An internet search through Google produce about 7g of carbon dioxide and boiling a kettle produces about 15g.  The emissions of a search is generated by the electricity used to support a user’s computer and date sent to the servers around the world.

I wonder how much carbon emissions produced by other sites, such as Yahoo!, wikipedia, msn?  Although Google is definitely killing our planet, it also revolutionized how this world operates.

(news)

Air New Zealand successfully test fly a jumbo jet, Boeing 747-400, with biofuel for two hours on Tuesday.  The passenger jet took off from Auckland International Airport on Tuesday.  This test flight is a joint venture by Air New Zealand, airplane maker Boeing, engine maker Rolls Royce and biofuel specialist UOP Llc.  This flight biofuel experiment aims to reduce carbon footprint and tackling the problem of rising oil prices.

The biofuel is a 50-50 blend of jatropha oil and standard air jet fuel.  This biofuel is also known as second generation biofuel, which has less emission than traditional biofuel ethanol.  The jatropha nuts for this biofuel were harvested from trees grown in India, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania.  The fuel was freezing at -47C and burning at 38C.

According to the International Air Transport Association, other plant materials such as grass, algae and salt-tolerant plants called halophytes have been considered to replace traditional fuel.  New technology is also invested to design lighter and air resistance fleets to replace the outdated ones.  Currently air travel contributes 3% of global carbon dioxide emissions.