A researcher has suggested a way to reduce the internet’s impact on global warming.

In 2009, it is estimated that 2% of electricity generated on Earth was used to power the data centres that the internet relies on. These are huge warehouses full of enormous computers that hold all of the data from the web.

To create this energy, around 200 million tonnes of harmful CO2 was released into the air.

In the same way that your PC has a fan to keep it cool, these internet servers need cooling too. Around half of the energy used by data centres goes towards air-conditioning.

G. I. Meijer says that if liquid cooling was used, this would be hundreds or thousands of times more efficient than air cooling.

Meijer estimates that data centres could reduce their energy needs by 50%. An added bonus is that the heat stored in the liquid can then be used for other things, such as to heat nearby buildings.