"A Printing Office" (a WhatTheyThink blog managed by Patrick Henry) recently published comments by Kevin Keane. In The Coal-Fired Internet, Kevin noted: At a Xerox luncheon during Print 09, Dr. Joe said: “We have a coal-fired Internet.” Meaning, we should not forget that all those who tout paperless billing via a the Internet or downloading e-books to their Amazon Kindle reader via the Internet are still using one of millions of computer nodes on a worldwide network which is run off of electricity and which by definition leaves a carbon imprint of a considerably sulfurous sort. Let's take a closer look at energy sources and a detailed breakdown of computer usage and power requirements as we continue to balance "Pixels vs Paper." The Energy Information Administration, a source of government statistics regarding energy sources and usage, published June 2009 statistics (the most recent) on September 11. "Year-to-date, coal-fired plants contributed 45.0% of the nation’s electric power. Nuclear plants contributed 20.8%, while 21.4% was generated at natural gas-fired plants. Of the 1.1% generated by petroleum-fired plants, petroleum liquids represented 0.8%, with the remainder from petroleum coke. Conventional hydroelectric power provided 7.6% of the total, while other renewables (biomass, geothermal, solar, and wind) and other miscellaneous energy sources generated the remaining 3.8% of electric power." The West Virginia Coal Association published a report called Coal Facts 2008 that gives us a calculation of the amount of coal needed to power various computer and internet activities.

• It takes one pound of coal to produce 1.25 kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to light one 100 watt lightbulb for 10 hours.
• A typical computer spread with internet access requires about 1,000 watts of power.
• A lump of coal is burned every time a book is ordered on-line.
• It takes about a pound of coal to create, package, store and move 2 megabytes of data.
• The average internet user (12 hours per week) uses over 300 pounds of coal annually for this purpose.
• The total demand for electricity from personal computers on the internet amounts to 8% of the U.S. electrical supply.
• When one billion people are accessing the internet, as is projected, the required electricity will be equal to total current capacity of U.S. electric power production.
• One ton of coal equals 3.8 barrels of oil, 189 gallons of gasoline, one cord of firewood, 21,000 cubic feet of natural gas, and 6,500 kilowatts of electricity. (A cord of wood measures 4 feet high by 4 feet wide by eight feet long (4' x 4' x 8') and has a volume of 128 cubic feet.)

More than 2/3 of the US power requirements are supplied by fossil fuels - coal, natural gas, and petroleum. Wood is renewable. Taking all communication online is not "going green," all communication channels have a carbon footprint. We need to consider availability, renewability, and the cost of collecting the fuel to generate electricity as well as the actual production of paper and printed material.