Friday 21 November 2008

Is Facebook Destroying the Planet?



Found this on the trendspotting blog. Facebook has 10 billion photos, uses 10,000 servers and has just borrowed $100m to purchase another 50,000 servers. Just to support the 300,000 images that are served every second, Facebook burns 38, 500 kw a second.

If Facebook were a nation it would be the 12th most populous in the world. The graph above shows its carbon footprint versus major US cities.

So, is social networking sustainable?

Phil

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes it probably is, with the help of people who make slinkies out of a trillion post-it notes....

Anonymous said...

Wow never even thought about the impact that is has. But as son as we discover the alternative ways of generating electricity then it will be saving the planet.

Anonymous said...

Too right ErikJ. As we move further and further into virtual worlds because it's economically efficient, we also need to think about the environmental effect. Solar powered mobiles? Kinetically powered laptops? Energy conversion technology?