Searches on Google make up about 10 % of the internet ’s carbon footprint , which itself equals the emissions of the aviation industry , according to researcher David Moll . Power for servers , undersea cables , routers and switches comes from carbon dioxide - emitting fossil - fuel power sources . Google has not contested the claim and said it is designing energy - efficient data centres , but has said it is still not clear how much greenhouse gas search engines generate . The research concentrated on Google because of its size , but among other online businesses Facebook has admitted that its operations generate similar emissions to 77,500 US homes .
Searches on Google make up about 40% of the internet’s carbon footprint, which itself equals the emissions of the aviation industry, according to researcher Joanna Moll. Energy for servers, undersea cables, routers and switches comes from carbon dioxide-emitting fossil-fuel power sources. Google has not contested the figures and said it is designing energy-efficient data centres, but scientists said it is still not clear how much greenhouse gas search engines generate. The research concentrated on Google because of its size, but among other online businesses Facebook has admitted that its operations generate similar emissions to 77,500 US homes.