1MB ~= 1 lump of coal?

It’s hard to imagine that our browsing activities on the internet require any energy at all. Somehow it’s easier to accept that watching TV requires energy and to grasp that the longer we watch the more energy we consume. The NET is different. The information is not transferred in a steady stream as with television but more erratically. From low bandwidth activities like email and IM to video streaming and Skype calls.

In this TEDtalk Jay Walker states that it takes the energy in 1 lump of coal to move 1 MB of information across the NET. Of course not all of the energy we use comes from burning coal. However, this is an important idea. Whether Walker’s calculations are accurate or not, the “1 lump of coal = 1MB” soundbite at least acts as a memorable reminder of the link between information consumption and energy consumption.

For those wanting more in depth calculations, this article analyses the link between information consumption and energy consumption in more detail calculating that it takes 323,000 KW·hs of energy to download 100 web pages.