What difference does a color make?

As is explained here, in January a blogger noted that white computer screens use slightly more energy than black ones [Update -- only for CRTs, not for flat panels -- see comments].

After a few back o’ the envelope calculations, it was estimated that if the search engine giant Google switched its screen from white to black, 750 megawatt-hours of energy could be saved globally each year.

Fast forward a few months and Google has started a trial of the black-screened search engine – Blackle, found at www.blackle.com. The website also keeps track of how many hours of energy have been saved. When I visited, the number was up to 116,992.364 Watt hours.

Certainly a small, practically mindless, but creative change.

Two blog mentions. First, the well-named Green Herring — “An environmentalist responds to red herrings tossed out by denialists” wrote:

I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t posted to this blog for some time. I’ve read some excellent books recently, including Andrew Dessler’s The Science and Politics of Global Warming and Joseph Romm’s Hell and High Water. Each does a fine job of spelling out the reality of the climate crisis, pointing out the strong scientific concensus on the matter. Each in its own way then delves into what has gone wrong over the past decade in the political process in the USA. Their failure to come to grips with this crisis rests on a tragic history of disinformation, spin, and cheap debating tactics, playing on public reluctance to accept a truth that is truly inconvenient.

And Fireblades.org, a website for Honda motorcycle enthusiasts, saw Who killed the electric car? and wrote:

Read more