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On a slightly related note I saw a stat not to long ago showing that the Internet is using about 5% of the worlds current energy output

I don't think anyone has a really good handle on this. A report in the (London) Times last year by Jonathan Leake and Richard Woods (get it before it vanishes behind the Dirty Digger's pay wall) quoted Gartner, an IT&T industry analysis firm, as estimating that the global IT industry (of which the Internet is only a modest part) as producing "about 2% of global CO2 emissions".

Unfortunately, Leake is not a reliable correspondent. The cited Internet energy usage report also carries a retraction. Leake's and Woods's claim that "performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea" is rubbish.

If Gartner has been accurately reported though, it is a fairly reliable source.