@VegetablesAreMyFriends a big chunk of my work is sustainability and measuring CO2 emissions. I think it is great that Google have at least attempted to measure the emissions. Google's reason for withdrawing some parameters is that some of the assumptions they had to make to undertake the calculations are so generic as to be meaningless. Google have been completely transparent and it is completely normal to leave out certain elements from an analysis. My irritation with Green Peace and the BBC is the implication that Google have done something underhand or decietful. They haven't and I think GP and the BBC are misrepresenting something that we all need to understand better.
I really wanted to see what people without any specific training but with an interest in sustainability thought of the news piece. Thank you.
Re the second link you posted. Offsetting is a process where an organisation can buy into schemes that remove carbon dioxide and other green house gases from the atmosphere to match the emissions from elsewhere in the organisation. The most common schemes rely on tree planting and other bio based processes such as sea grass planting.