3. Global networks and place: Describe the land-use effects of ‘googling’ something. Think up some ways your ‘googling’ can be ‘greener’.

Googling something comes with a number of land use effects. First of all there is Google itself. Google is a global company with a number of different data centres over many different countries. This naturally takes up a large amount of space. Along with this space comes the thousands of workers that would drive to work, meaning that additional space is needed to house them, increasing their land-use. There is also the pollution that these workers bring with them from their cars, leading to increased pollution in these areas. Another way that Google uses the land is through electricity. They need a constant stream of electricity to keep all their servers online and running and to also keep the facilities running, as servers create heat they need to be cooled constantly to ensure they don’t overheat. This means that Google uses a large amount of energy derived from fossil fuels. Another way is all the other resources that went into making the computers, servers and wires that Google uses. This means a large amount of plastics and metals were used in the creation of these data centres that keep Google running. There are also the land uses on the receivers end. Electricity is used by the computer that is ‘googling’, which helps to increase their electricity consumption. There is also the use of plastics and metals in the computers or devices that can now access the internet.

While these may be the land-uses of Google, there are many things that can be done, and that are being done to help minimise the impact that this large company has. One of the main ways is by using renewable energy. By harnessing solar and wind energy, Google will be able to lower their electricity use and might even be able to put some of the energy back into the community. There are also many other ways that Google can minimise its carbon footprint. With a large amount of workers, shuttle buses for these workers will take a large number of cars of the road, lowering traffic congestion and also lowering pollution. Incentives to use public transport or push bikes could also lead to lower carbon emissions. This would also mean that they wouldn’t need as big a space for their buildings and facilities if parking spaces were very limited, meaning people were better off getting to work through other means.

These are the many land-uses of googling and also some of the examples of how to combat this land-use.