Google says its carbon footprint is now zero

>” its offsets so far have focused mainly on capturing natural gas where it's escaping from pig farms and landfill sites. ”

Currently via offsets above; in the future via carbon-free energy.

I agree. It sounds better than it actually is, but on the other hand it helps mop up others’ sloppiness.

Also, network traffic is about 40% (estimated) of the energy consumption of IT according to the statistics I've seen.

This is quite impressive, but it is also somewhat meaningless. I suppose I'd draw an analogy to a cake shop boasting that it had achieved net-no industrial accidents over its existence - a great record, but also not really a particular stretch to achieve.

Carbon emissions aren't about servers. They are about, in order of priority:

* How do we feed people cheaply without fossil fuels (both as fertiliser & for crop transport)?

* How do we extract minerals cheaply (especially aluminium) without fossil fuels?

* How do we maintain the cheap logistics network that gets us stuff without fossil fuels?

The first two are non-negotiable, the 3rd is quite important. If those 3 problems were solved then fossil fuels would just go away quietly. Google isn't involved in any of those things; it is part of the 'these carbon emissions are incidental' category of emissions that we can reasonably get rid of.

But, again, good on them for setting clear goals and achieving them.

Cimate acconting is much like tax accounting. You find a loophole, then magically slush all your profits through it.

I don't want to be too harsh on Google as at the very least they project they care if not more. The sad reality is that once 'compensation' was on the books, this led to the worst ecological whitewashing imaginable.

Right now Europe is being deforested at an unprecedented rate because the timber and coal industry managed to get their extremely polluting wood burning practices declared 'carbon neutral' and 'renewable'. Then they went all in on pro-fines for Eu countries not meeting renewable deadlines, forcing them to allow strip mining of the few forests Europe has left.

In 'renewable' Excel spreadsheets all is dandy. In the real world we are looking at ecological genocide.

I have mixed feelings about this. It’s wonderful that Google is making progress on their emissions. But I wonder if their business model is at all compatible with a 0 carbon world. Their entire raison d’être is to convince people to buy things they don’t need. They even have a very targeted flight purchasing service.

This type of behavior we’ve grown accustomed to—of unbridled consumerism and excess—seems like it’s gotta be dialed back if we’re to make any meaningful progress on greenhouse gas emissions as a planet.