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Google's exponential path to climate-wrecking digital bloat

9 points by birdculture

by RetroTechie

0 subcomment

"Google’s total claim for emissions reductions “enabled” by their products is a whopping 41 million megatonnes of CO2-e, more than the company’s entire footprint by a good margin."
Author trying to exaggerate by squeezing in an extra "million" factor?
If you look at the captions under the pictures in "Figure 15.", they add up to around 41 Mt CO2 equivalent. That's either "41 million tonnes" or "41 megatonnes". NOT "41 million megatonnes".
Author's number didn't make sense anyway. Wikipedia:
"Over 60 billion tons were emitted in 2025, higher than any year before.[2] Total cumulative emissions from 1870 to 2022 were 703 GtC (2575 GtCO2), of which 484±20 GtC (1773±73 GtCO2) from fossil fuels and industry, and 219±60 GtC (802±220 GtCO2) from land use change."
41 Million megatons = 41,000 gigatonnes. Easy to see that doesn't compute no matter how you slice it.