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Internet use makes up approximately 2 per cent of global carbon emissions each year, according to Dr Alex Wissner-Gross, a physicist from Harvard University.

‘Each Google search generates and estimated 5-10 grams of CO2, in part because Google’s unique infrastructure replicates queries across multiple servers, which then compete to provide the fastest answer to your query. On the other hand, just browsing a basic web site generates about 20 mg of CO2 for every second you view it,’ wrote Dr Alex Wissner-Gross in an article for the British newspaper, The Sunday Times.

In addition, he found that accessing websites that carry plenty of visual content, such as video and animation, can increase carbon consumption by up to 300 mg per second.

Dr Wissner-Gross quotes research conducted by US firm Gartner, which found that CO2 emissions caused by the IT industry are now larger than those caused by the entire international aviation industry.

If you find this hard to believe, the numbers add up quickly when you consider that billions of internet searches are conducted around the globe on a daily basis. Moreover, each of these searches requires the use of at least two servers and its associated energy consumption.

Dr Wissner-Gross is co-founder of the website www.co2stats.com, which provides subscribers with a tool for calculating how much energy a website consumes.

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