Green Daily

So you're feeling pretty good about your new web site. You're writing interesting articles and people are reading them and learning how often your kids say funny things, how to take care of their pets, or how to make money online. But the more time people spend reading your website, the more you're killing the planet.

OK, that's probably a bit of hyperbole, but the truth is it takes a lot of electricity to host your web site. And then there's all the electricity it takes to power the computers of every single person who stops by to read your site.

CO2Stats is a new widget that you can place on your blog or web site that will monitor your traffic and estimate your site's carbon footprint. The idea is that you can then purchase carbon offset credits to help neutralize your web site's impact on the environment.

Of course, CO2Stats provides a rough estimate at best. There's know way to know how energy efficient each readers' computer is. And while you may be able to measure how long readers spend on your site to some degree, you don't know if they're reading other pages in other browser tabs while your site is open in the background. Heck, they could be watching a movie or editing photos without having closed their browser. In other words, that little number on your widget might not be all your fault.

But hey, CO2Stats is a nice reminder that almost everything we do online or off has an impact on the environment, so I'm not going to judge it too harshly.

[via Mashable]