In 1994, there were about 25 million internet users worldwide. That figure rose to 910 million by 2004 and jumped to 2.9 billion - with a B - in 2014. In some ways, the web is great and can save energy, but the data centers that support all the electronic devices use more energy than many nations.
Being connected has become an obsession. Sixty-two percent of people use their cell phones as soon as they get up. The typical person checks their smartphone 150 times throughout the day.
In a paper published in 2013, the CEO of Digital Power Group, Mark Mills, calculated that more energy is burned streaming a high-def movie than to manufacture and ship a DVD of the same film. If the support for all that data was a nation, “it would rank fifth in electricity consumption. Reducing that number by even 50% would save the equivalent of the electricity consumption of the United Kingdom.”- HP.
Source Worldwide Internet users: The Week, Nov. 21, 2014