So, what is Treehugger's carbon footprint? What is Treehugger doing to offset their own footprint? What is the footprint of this intelligent and civil comment?

LOL. But seriously... think of the awareness!!!

We also need to save all we can to send pols and journos and celebs to Antarctica to report back on the damage being done by... all those pols and journos and celebs going...

You're either in the business of green, or up against it.

Tell you what, pedalling while you type keeps you fit, mind!

Altough your finding is surely quite interesting, I think you must focus on what makes the world a better place. And i think that making someone realise his impact (or footprint) to the environment is a step forward.

Cause if we want to pull our conversation further it would probably take a serious amount of energy to run & publish your research and our comments... and so on.

What is even scarier is that we have reserchers spending huge amounts of resources (money, energy etc) to increase the output of solar panels by 0.1%. However, without research we would still be riding horses which have a much better mpg than an average car, or not?! Food for thought for a future article... thank you for reading

Who is to say that the databases are run off of coal power. This would be a better discussion for solid state memory than reduction in coal power.

How much water would that equate to?

April Fools!

Very funny April Fools pic and post.

Nicely done.

I do wonder, though, about how to green time spent online. I know that many utility companies are offering ... it must be most people in the States by now ... people the choice to buy renewable energy. Also, I've read about green powered servers...

Sorry I don´t know about HML tags or URL but the rest of my comment may be more intelligent. Except it´s more of an enquiry:
Really it´s a problem, all those computers whose combined use results in substantial Carbon emissions. Many people have a no-break too which uses still more energy.
Has anyone yet come up with a solar-charged no-break? Direct current from a solar panel charges the battery which feeds a circuit with the computers etc.
I believe in some cases wind power comes cheaper. But panels on the roof are less obtrusive than wimd turbines. I once saw an attractive venturi tube design with the propeller and generator in the throat.
I think many people would like to know more about this.

Servers really do use a lot of electricity, and since the US generates much of its electricity by burning coal, they generate a lot of CO2. A recent study (which you was posted here on Treehugger.com) shows a Second Life character uses more electricity than a real person in much of the Third World.

Two solutions suggest themselves. Since much of the energy is used for cooling servers, move the server farms from warm places (like California) to cold places like Alaska and Northern Canada. Use naturally cold air and water to cool the servers and then use the "waste" heat to heat buildings, fish farms or what have you.

Second, since burning coal is the problem, not how the energy is used, move the server power sources to areas where electricity is generated from hydro (preferably run of river stations as these don't generate much CO2 unlike flooding forests) and nuclear power or generate the electricity in greener ways.

France would be a good location for European servers (most power is from nuclear plants), Quebec and Ontario would be good locations for North American server farms (most power is hydro or nuclear).

There are renewable energy powered calculators online for sure. It would be an oversight in marketing to jump into this niche and not be using true green energy or at least purchasing premium energy from a provider, eg Bullfrog Power or Pembina Institute, in Canada.
Mantra Ventures Group is one example of a firm that has a graphics-driven calculator, powered by green energy servers (www.mantraenergy.com).
Sure they're not the only ones.