How Much CO2 Does Your Avatar Produce?

"A Second Life avatar produces 1,685 pounds of CO2? And an acre of real estate in Second Life produces 99 tons of CO2? What gives?"

So asks USC's own Julian Bleecker, responding to a blog entry by Nicholas Carr detailing the material expenditures associated with Second Life activity. (Carr concludes his surprising calculations by noting, "Avatars aren't quite as intangible as they seem. They don't have bodies, but they do leave footprints.") The ongoing online conversation is an interesting one suggesting a blurring of boundaries between "lives," which definitely affects one's Second Life experience.

Second Life, perhaps due to all the hype surrounding it, has been the subject of other attacks and defenses. Recently, for example, there was a series of disagreements centering on the depiction of life in Darfur in Second Life's "Camp Darfur." Who should represent Darfur in Second Life? asked on angry blogger. A lot of these discussions center on what's "appropriate" or productive in a virtual environment, and as such, indicate a lot of the assumptions about the differences between material and virtual.

Anyway, take a look at Julian's post, and if you feel like it, go through the PDF of his LIFT talk; while it doesn't tell you a lot since it's designed to accompany his spoken presentation, it does demonstrate a terrific use of images, text and design.