Let's see if we can follow this one through logically. The original question:
quote:
How much damage are we doing to Global warming just by sitting here (or standing, if that's your thing) on the computer now?
Response and faulty justification:
quote:
Shit loads, more if your in America obviously. The USA is largest single emitter or GHGs. It's GHG emissions have also risen +16% between 1990 & 2004. Comparable to the UKs, which dropped by 14%
The question is about the environmental impact of operating a computer. The response suggests the impact is greater if you do it in the USA. Is that really true, though?
The total greenhouse gas emissions by country has nothing to do with anything; all things being equal, a single computer operated in any country would contribute the same to the global GHG emissions. However, things are not equal: electricty can be generated in a number of ways, of which only fossil fuel contributes to greenhouse effect. Nuclear, hydro and other methods of generating electricity do not result in GHG emissions.
So, the relevant statistic here is the percentage of electricity generated from burning fossil fuels. As usual, Google helps us out and
here is a nice chart. You will want to scroll down past all the 100% countries, to the 70s, where you will find both UK and USA, at 73.8% and 71.4% respectively.
Yes, although close, a greater percentage of electricty in UK comes from burning fossil fuels than it does in USA. Consequently, it can be said that operating the same computer for the same amount of time in the UK does
more damage to the environment than doing the same in the US. Oops!
