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The folks in Mountain View have always been obsessed with performance , but until now, Google had never come clean with the nitty-gritty surrounding power usage. A new report published by the company tells all, revealing that the search giant emits 1.5 million tons of carbon annually; a figure roughly on par with the UN’s operational footprint, or slightly more than the amount produced by the entire country of Laos. The docket also breaks down the carbon emissions by activity, too: individual searches yield 0.2g, ten minutes of YouTube emits 1g and the average Gmail user produces 1.2kg of CO2 over a year — which on average equates to a grand total of 1.46kg of CO2 per plebe across its properties. According to Google, that’s a figure that would have been higher had it not custom designed its data centers , achieving a fifty percent reduction in energy usage versus the industry average. Plenty of infographical delight awaits you at the source below. Google details its carbon footprint in new report, makes you think twice about Rickrolling someone originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink