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 about it, the main drawback here is that to use the Internet you need a computer or portable device. I don’t want to become an environmental freak with you, but many of these devices are filled with toxic chemicals, carcinogens, heavy metals, and plastics, most of which will end up in a landfill. But with that said, this is all 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 most prominent positive point to note would be that the web has decreased the need for paper, with entire libraries of information, publications, magazines, etc. available online; in theory, much less paper should be used. But by saying this, people are still printing web documents on a daily basis, so this cancels the paper that is not used due to the internet.

Well, let’s take a closer look, to begin with, let’s look at magazines, newspapers, and other publications. Well, we know that these posts still exist as physical paper objects, and while these posts now exist online as well, the amount of paper used hasn’t changed that much. But saying this, I personally never buy a newspaper, instead I read the sky news on my iPhone one morning, and very rarely will I 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 only Gizmodo gets more than 5,097,121 visits per month in the United States. The question is whether sites like these will eventually take over. Will the Internet take over and will newspapers, magazines and books cease to exist? Well, there is no sure way to find out, but with new tech gadgets like e-readers and tablets it is very possible, especially if we want a greener planet.

In addition to freeing us from the need for physical publications on paper, technology and the Internet have allowed us to access telephone bills and bank statements via the web instead of having to receive 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 a whole new era of communication.

People no longer send letters to each other, but email, msn, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, etc. It is used to communicate and keep in touch with friends. Therefore, mail delivery is used much less this way, but again this could be canceled 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 still end up at the same point, the planet does not seem to be getting greener thanks to the network, but personally I think that if we wanted to, the Internet could become an important tool to create a planet more green, we have eliminated the need for books, magazines, newspapers, paper bills and statements, etc .; but we still choose to use the paper versions. By no means am I saying that we should completely get rid of all paper, after all, there is nothing better than a real copy of your favorite book, but maybe we could cut down on paper use thanks to the internet.

But the Internet has not only made a change in the above ways, information on any subject is widely available on the Internet, more specifically on this subject, the amount of information on recycling, alternative energy and green things in general is tremendous. This has allowed anyone with Internet access to discover everything they want to help our planet go 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 environmental related topics you might want to know about. From science to fashion, treehugger provides excellent reading material and also has a couple of “how to” pages. 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 really works or not is irrelevant, but it is basically a search engine powered by Google but it uses a black background and white text to supposedly save power, I don’t see how it saves power like monitor and computer probably they will continue to use the same amount of energy as when using a normal site. But either way, it’s worth checking out.

Freecycle.com:

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

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