If you're one of the few that still doesn't believe in global warming, then this article isn't for you. Because even those who refuse to do anything about it can still accept the barrage of facts and scientific data that support climate change. Unfortunately, this isn't the time or place to get into such things, but I can tell you about the many initiatives sponsored by Google to help combat this worsening issue.
Google has two main objectives in terms of solving the climate problem: diminish greenhouse gas emissions and help underprivileged communities adjust to the changes that have already occurred. Obviously, they aren't just talking about the United States; rather, they are concerned with brutally poor societies in Africa, Asia, and South America. Google wants to help them deal with the effects of rising sea levels and drought, among other things.
In order to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Google has decided to thoroughly invest in making energy more efficient, namely clean and renewable energy sources. Back in June 2007, Google went public and said they would become completely carbon-neutral by the end of the year. To be carbon-neutral, a company must balance the amount of carbon released with the amount of carbon sequestered. With more and more companies saying they intend to be fully carbon-neutral, one can only hope it grows from a trend into a corporate necessity.
First, Google calculated their own carbon output by adding up the emissions from purchased electricity, business travel, employee commuting to and from work, server manufacturing, and construction. In order to counterbalance this now, they've started investing in renewable energy projects around the world. Urs Hoelzle, senior vice president of operations at Google, had this to say about these international endeavors:
By investing in projects elsewhere in the world that cut the overall amount of greenhouse gases, we can help reduce climate impact now while we develop more sustainable strategies for the future.
This sounds like a good start but it might be too soon to determine whether any of these international projects have had any effect. In fact, according the nonprofit group ClimateCounts, who kept a scorecard evaluating the top Internet companies' efforts to reduce their impact on the climate, Google ranked well behind Yahoo and Microsoft. However, this scorecard was totaled before Google announced any of their major plans concerning this issue, which I will be going over throughout the rest of this article, so judge for yourself whether Google is on the right track.
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