Creating a better future
Google, CO2, and misinformation travelling at the speed of light
The Australian, and just about every other media outlet around the world, recently picked up an interesting story first published by The Times about the quantity of carbon emissions generated by a single Google search. The story claimed amongst other things that two Google searches used the same amount of power as boiling a kettle, and attributed these findings to Harvard Physicist Alex Wissner-Gross of CO2 Stats.
The truth is that Wissner-Gross never made these claims. In fact his report does not even refer to Google. It appears The Times took his research and made some very unscientific extrapolations to fabricate a news story.
Wissner-Gross was quick to set the record straight, and Google were equally quick to publish their own, much more believable calculations. Ironically, Wissner-Gross and Google have both inadvertently profited from this piece of media shenanigans. Their respective responses have been published far-and-wide over the internet, giving CO2 Stats a level of publicity it could never have dreamed of and Google a chance to plug its environmental credentials.
The Times has now edited the original story with reference to the responses of Wissner-Gross and Google.
Perhaps the old maxim is true - There is no such thing as bad publicity.
The truth is that Wissner-Gross never made these claims. In fact his report does not even refer to Google. It appears The Times took his research and made some very unscientific extrapolations to fabricate a news story.
Wissner-Gross was quick to set the record straight, and Google were equally quick to publish their own, much more believable calculations. Ironically, Wissner-Gross and Google have both inadvertently profited from this piece of media shenanigans. Their respective responses have been published far-and-wide over the internet, giving CO2 Stats a level of publicity it could never have dreamed of and Google a chance to plug its environmental credentials.
The Times has now edited the original story with reference to the responses of Wissner-Gross and Google.
Perhaps the old maxim is true - There is no such thing as bad publicity.
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Comment by Bob Lilienfeld on January 20, 2009 at 9:16am -
I have found that fact checking has become a lost art, probably because it's expensive. There are times when I have been asked to verify my own data, with nothing more than a "yup" required. Think critically and skeptically, and you'll most likely make better decisions.
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