Infographic: Environmental Impact of Computing

Just how much power do you consume with your computing equipment? Computers, routers, print servers, gaming consoles, all of it consumes power constantly, and most of it is so far removed from our consciousness that we pay it no attention.  A new infographic at IAmGreen, from the folks at Infographicworld, attempts to compile some statistics about the environmental impact of our computing addiction.  Some figures:

• The average desktop computer consumes enough electricity to produce roughly 4.5lbs of CO2.
• Over 1 Billion Computers in use WorldWide, set to double by 2014
• In a single working day (9 to 5), computers consume 1.7 Million Megawatts.
• Manufacturing of new computers this year will require 25 Million Tons of Fossil Fuels.

See the full-size graphic after the break.

Infographic / Environmental Impact of Computing / iamgreen.

This story written by Randall Hand

Randall Hand is a computer graphics programmer and news junky that's been working in the field for the last 15 years. He's responsible for visualizations generated on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, ytnef, mullion support in ParaView, and VizWorld.com.