| Carbon Matters for PC Users |
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| September 2008 | |
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We have read in the press about companies in New Zealand declaring carbon zero by year 2010 or 2015. What is carbon zero? What are those companies doing? Will the Government create a carbon zero law and get all of us involved? This short article attempts to provide some big picture facts and figures, and in particular, explain how IT or computing is related to carbon zero at all. The 1st piece of information is that the average sea level temperature of the Earth has gone up by 0.7C over the last 100 years. Most environmentalists claimed that the rise is due to greenhouse effect where carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is stopping heat to escape from the Earth into space. The 2nd piece of information is that all data centres in USA consumed collectively 1% of the total national electricity consumption in year 2000 and some of the electricity generation processes emit CO2 into the atmosphere. The 3rd piece of information is that a 24x7 server emits a similar amount of CO2 in a year as a car- 11560 pounds. Having built up our perspective, how we can contribute and adopt Green IT ourselves if we want to? We have the following options. One: Buy computers that run reliably day and night and last forever. Two: Buy computers that use components that are friendly to the Earth when disposed of. Those components would be compliant with an European initiative called Restriction of Hazardous Substance. Three: Avoid printing from a computer on paper or anything. Lastly, allocate time away from the computer to plant some trees as trees absorb CO2. To achieve carbon zero, carbon positive companies will have to buy carbon credits from carbon negative companies. This is getting messy and we will stop right here. Enjoy reading further articles in the press for the answer and return to this article for clarity of views. |