Now it’s probably obvious, but when I say greener I’m not asking if the web has made our planet a different color, I’m asking if, as the web has become such an influential part of our lives, has it helped us slowly to A greener planet.

I think the first issue I should raise is the negative effects that the Internet has on the planet, if any. Well, let’s think, the main negative point here is that to use the Internet you need a computer or a portable device. I don’t want to go crazy about the environment, but many of these devices are full of toxic chemicals, carcinogens, heavy metals, and plastics, most of which will end up in a landfill. But with that said, all of this is getting better as most manufacturers are becoming much more environmentally conscious and there are now multiple ways to recycle your computer or device.

Well, the biggest positive point to note would be that the web has diminished the need for paper, with entire libraries of information, publications, magazines, etc. available online; theoretically much less paper should be used. But with that said, people are still printing web documents on a daily basis, so this cancels out paper that is not used due to the internet.

Well, let’s analyze further, for starters, let’s look at magazines, newspapers and other publications. Well, we know that these publications still exist as physical paper objects, and although these publications now exist online as well, the amount of paper used hasn’t changed much. But with that said, I personally never buy a newspaper, but rather read the sky news on my iPhone in the morning, and very rarely buy a magazine.

Although all of these publications exist both physically and virtually, there are now information sites that exist purely online. For example, blogs like Engadget, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, among others, only exist in the online world and Gizmodo alone gets more than 5,097,121 visits per month in the US The question is whether sites like these will finally take over. Will the internet take over and will newspapers, magazines and books cease to exist? Well, there’s no sure way to tell, but with new tech gadgets like e-readers and tablets it’s very possible, especially if we want a greener planet.

In addition to freeing us from the need for physical paper publications, technology and the Internet have allowed us to access phone bills and bank statements through the web instead of having to send you a physical copy.

The Internet must also have had an impact on the carbon footprint by allowing more and more people to work from home by opening up a whole new range of jobs, and more importantly, the Internet has opened up a new era of communication.

People no longer send letters to each other, but by email, msn, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, etc. It is used to communicate and keep in touch with friends. So mail delivery is much less used this way, but again this could be canceled out by the fact that more people are buying and ordering products online and having them delivered to their homes.

So even after all this change, it seems that we end up at the same point, the planet doesn’t seem to get greener thanks to the network, but I personally think that if we wanted to, the Internet could become an important tool to create a greener planet, we have eliminated the need for books, magazines, newspapers, paper bills and statements, etc.; but we still choose to use the paper versions. I’m by no means saying we should get rid of all paper altogether, after all, there’s nothing better than an actual copy of your favorite book, but maybe we can cut down on paper use thanks to the internet.

But the Internet has not only made a change in the previous ways, information on any topic is widely available on the Internet, more specifically on this topic, the amount of information on recycling, alternative energy and green things in general is tremendous. This has allowed anyone with Internet access to find anything they want to help make our planet greener in seconds.

Let’s take a look at some of the best eco-friendly sites:

Treehugger.com:

Treehugger.com is a huge blog/site with articles and information on all the ecology related topics you could possibly want to know about. From science to fashion, Treehugger provides excellent reading material and also has a couple of pages on “how to act”. Apart from all the information available on the site, aesthetically it is a very well designed blog.

Recyclenow.com:

This site has lots of information about recycling in your area and tips on how you can recycle. Once again, a great site and a nice design.

Blackle.com:

This is a very interesting site, whether it actually works or not is irrelevant but basically it’s a search engine powered by Google but uses a black background and white text to supposedly save power, I don’t see how it saves power like the monitor and computer they will probably still use the same amount of power as when using a normal site. But either way it’s worth a look.

freecycle.com:

I have to admit that it’s not the most attractive site on this list, but what it lacks in looks it makes up for in functionality. The site is based on a simple concept; one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Basically, if you have something, anything you don’t want or need anymore, you can post the details here, and if someone wants it, you can organize a collection or send it to them. It’s that simple and it also works the other way around, if you need or want something you can search freecycle and if someone has one they can keep it.

As you can see, the Internet is changing most of our lives, it is not yet known whether or not it will have a big impact on our planet. But personally I think that if we wanted, the internet and technology in general could help us a lot.