The Carbon footprint of computers

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computersA lot of attention has been paid to the carbon footprint of automobiles, airplanes, and buildings, but one of the activities that takes up most of our time has gotten little attention: computers.  In a recent article in the Economist, they covered a report published by the Climate Group on the climate impacts of computers. Surprisingly, computers have a cumulative impact similar to that of air travel, producing approximately 830 million tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution or about 2% of total over carbon emissions. The Climate Group estimates that by 2020, approximately 6% of CO2 emissions will come from computers and 1 out of 3 global citizens are expected to have a computer.

On the bright side, computers can offer a number carbon cutting tools like smart meters.  Savings also can be obtained by businesses using distributive computing, instead of running their own server.  An example of energy saving opportunities, was posted in the E2.0 article, ” Holyoke Green Data Center“, which would serve as a resource for multiple universities involved in biotechnology and climate industries.

As an individual, you can reduce the carbon footprint of your computer and its complementary accessories like, printers, faxes, and cell phones. The following tips can help you trim carbon calories from your energy waist line:

  • Unplug all your computers and complimentary machines. Even in the off or sleep mode they pull energy from the grid, often referred to as vampire loads!
  • Set your computer to sleep mode when you are away from your desk for prolonged periods of time (15 minutes or more)
  • Purchase an energy efficient PC. Laptops actually use a lot less energy than desktops.
  • Turn off your computer when you are done for the day and use a power strip so that you can turn off all computer accessories at once.

Cooler coolers

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Having a tough time getting you or your loved ones to not stand in front of the fridge with the door open? While behavioral changes are almost always the cheapest and most efficient means of reducing consumption, there are some interesting technical solutions available in this area. You could try installing a curtain (opting for the thinner Mylar/polyester over PVC), or purchasing a chest refrigerator. This little known refrigerator format has the advantage of keeping the cool air inside (it sinks and stays trapped) while also providing a secondary work surface in a crowded kitchen.

New fridge not in the budget? Well, you might be interested in this oldie but goodie which has recently sprung up again: “convert” a chest freezer into a chest refrigerator for about $60. Your custom fridge could end up running a whole year for the cost of one month of power for a typical refrigerator! (140 kWh/yr reported energy use, vs. 144 kWh/mo energy use for 17.5 ft3 frostless refrigerator/freezer) Of course, one disadvantage to this format is that you’ll need a separate freezer, but you should still end up far ahead.

White Roofs Everywhere!

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Want to know a quick, relatively easy way to reduce global climate change?  Paint your rooftops white. Yes, it’s true.The way rooftops—as well as roadways are currently constructed (using dark asphalt and color scheme) creates a feedback loop of heat absorption in the atmosphere. Dark colors absorb heat, meaning less is reflected back into space. It’s a dangerous cycle. According to Professor Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary, white roofs could be a relatively inexpensive way to cut carbon, but are also doable with immediate results. In fact, Dr. Chu commented that “lightening roofs and roads in urban environments would offset the global warming effects of all the cars in the world for 11 years” .

One could argue however that producing all the toxic paint used to complete such a massive intiative would out-weight the benefits. It’s also not necessarily a long-term solution. Furthermore, there’s the case for “living roofs” that not only absorb heat but also act as carbon sinks. Of course green roofs—they are more commonly known—take much more time, money and effort, whereas painting is a relatively easy process. Either way, acting fast yet thinking long-term is the only way to truly battle climate change. Manageable steps with gigantic impact, such as lightening roofs and roadways, is something everyone can take part in today. Perhaps, then, it’s a good place to start.

Global Climate Chicken

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Sign: Watch out for Chicken

Congress will have a lot on its plate when it returns to session in approximately two weeks: health care, war/torture, food safety and of course climate change. Indeed, it’s beginning to look like, once again, the hopes of significant international effort to redress global warming are—arguably with good reason—landing square on the shoulders of Uncle Sam. As reported in many places yesterday, the Indian government has all but asked to be shamed into participating, and for developed nations to “call it’s bluff.” In a similar vein, and also making the rounds on Wednesday, was a statement from the Swedish minister of environment suggesting that: If the U.S. leads, China will follow. Alas, the fate of Waxman-Markley is still unclear, but at least this time Congress seems to be working towards the goal before international negotiations begin rather than against it. Perhaps you’d like to give your elected officials an encouraging nudge?

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Applied Chemistry

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Beakers by Move The Clouds

This month’s Sierra magazine includes a blurb about some of the lesser known impacts of fossil fuel use & global warming.

Half of the carbon dioxide we’ve put into the atmosphere since 1800 has been absorbed by the world’s oceans, increasing acidity by 30% and changing seawater to carbonic acid. In terms of pH (lower numbers equate to higher acidity), that means a drop of 0.1 from preindustrial levels [8.1] to today’s 8. If trends continue, ocean pH will be 7.7 by the end of the century. At 7.8, however, shell formation ceases. Barnacles, sea snails, and corals will decline precipitously.

In fact, the Caribbean is already impacted, as are sensitive Alaskan waters.

For those of you whom may have forgotten your high school chemistry: Like the Richter scale, pH is logarithmic and each whole number actually corresponds to a ten-fold change in the measured value. Thus the drop from a pH of 8.1 to 8 amounts to the cited 30% increase in acidity, or more specifically a 26% decline in alkalinity.

Carbonic acid is the product of carbon dioxide dissolved in water and it is present in beverages from seltzer to soda pop. Although it is a very mild acid, large quantities of can take their toll, and carbonic acid’s presence in ground water is responsible for the formation of limestone caves. Limestone is of course a sedimentary rock formed from the skeletons and shells of ancient sea-life…

It is interesting to note that since 1976 the EPA has regulated alteration of of pH as a pollutant, permitting variance of 0.2 from normal. This standard has undergone some scrutiny recently, and is likely too lax.

It’s a Thirsty World…

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Clean WaterLiving in Massachusetts, it is easy to take water for granted with an average rain fall of 45 inches per year.  While 2009 might turn out to be an above average year for rainfall, overall the region is expected to experience more frequent drought episodes. But despite the impacts from climate change and falling water tables from unsustainable suburban developments, Massachusetts is lucky in comparison to many other places across the globe like India, Australia, Mexico, Las Vegas, and the story of the week– Greece.

In a warming world, India which has been self sufficient for thousands of years is now deeply challenged on how to feed and provide water for its 1.15 billion inhabitants.  A number of converging factors have forced India to buy food on the International market– the monsoon has been coming later in the season and this year in some districts there is a 60% decrease in rainfall.  The Green revolution has also depleted the water table at 1.6 inches per year, and growing populations are adding to further resource depletion.

Developing countries are not the only places affected by climate change, population pressures, and unsustainable industrial practices.  Las Vegas, the poster child for the housing boom,potentially will have major water shortages by 2012 and plans to lay deeper pipes to keep up with falling Lake Mead.  Georgia on the other hand, was just struck down in the courts for its endless thirst for southern watersheds in Florida and Alabama.

The days of cheap water that is wasted on pristine chemical treated lawns, chlorinated pools, and industrial agriculture might be coming to an end. Over a billion people globally suffer from lack of sufficient clean water, it is estimated by 2025 forty percent of the global population will be short of this precious resource.   Global warming in conjunction with unsustainable water management practices is creating a very insecure world, as Mark Twain noted,

“Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.”

Biomimicry- The next green revolution?

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Wood Ant Hill

Wood Ant Hill

The current green revolution looks to renewable energy and green products to replace the polluting industries of the modern era.  What is often left out of the discussion is our relationship with the living biosphere and how our technology much revolutionize itself to not just being low-carbon, but operate under the principles of how nature organizes itself.  Janine Benyus, a scientist and founder of the company Biomimicry Guild, has been looking to nature to develop technologies that maximize efficiency prinicples inherent in the natural world.  This new movement, labeled biomimicry, asks homo sapiens sapiens to tap into the intellengence of nature in our design principles.  The natural world is not seen as a dumb organic machine, but rather a dynamic force that intelligently adapts to environmental changes to produce rhobust living ecosystems.

Humans are not the first and only species to be master builders, tool users, or farmers.  For over 3.8 billion years, nature has evolved eligant solutions to some of the basic ecological challenges we are struggling with today.  In the new online resource, www.asknature.org, it provides innovative minds with life’s best ideas to help develop sustainable technologies that are conductive to life.   On this free open source website, one can research a design question and find a list of how nature solves the issue.  For example, under the category of storing energy, there is a list of 33 species that adopt strategies to maximize energy use.

In the case of the wood ant, they build a nest with numerous holes for ventilation and entrances. At night and in cold weather the ants plug the holes to keep heat in. The workers also keep the slope of the nest at the right angle to obtain maximum amount of solar heat. The ants bring extra warmth into their nests as live heaters by basking in the sun in large numbers and taking the heat energy collected in their bodies into the nest.  Can our homes be built in ways to maximize existing natural resources and store and cool the building without destroying our atmosphere?  Passive solar design is one quick example of building techniques that blend old and new knowledge into our building design principles– with the potential of creating net zero energy use homes.

I believe this presents a paradigm shift for humanity, in which humans are not separate from the natural world but part of an intellegent ecosystem full of other species that have skills and wisdom to share with us.  To learn more about Biomimicry I recommend watching a talk by Janine Benyus at http://www.ted.com/talks/janine_benyus_biomimicry_in_action.html.

Youth take the lead on climate change and planet stewardship

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Youth.KoreaToday was a sad day for the environment, with reports released on the safety of our rivers and oceans being at stake.  It is hard to imagine that every river in the US has fish contaminated with mercury or that the plastic bags circulating in the Pacific Ocean in an area twice the size of Texas is now being found to be breaking down into a toxic soup of bisphenol-a.  More than ever, we need a movement to rise up and protect this fragile blue orb that supports life as we know it.

What gives me hope, is an article I came across today, that the seeding of such a movement is underway.  Over seven hundred youth from across the globe have gathered in Daejeon, Republic of Korea, to call on leaders to address Climate Change at Copenhagen in December and involve youth in environmental decisions.  Young people comprise of 3 billion of the global population and will be faced by the growing environmental challenges plaguing the planet.  They asked that environmental education be included in their curriculum and that global citizens take real steps to reduce their impacts on the planet like using public transportation and purchasing environmentally friendly products.

One of the most poignant statements from a youth delegate from the Netherlands, “We are the generation of tomorrow. The decisions that are made today will define our future and the world we have to live in. So we young people of the world urge governments to commit to a strong post-Kyoto climate regime. It is our lives we are talking about.”  Will the public and political leadership heed their call?

The Rights of Nature?

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Alaskan LakeArmy Corps of Engineers and the Supreme court has deemed Alaska’s Lower Slate Lake as a dump site for millions of tons of toxic tailings from gold mining.  While these types of practices are presumably illegal under the US Clean Water Act, the courts failed to keep this ecosystem from being destroyed.  A number of similar types of cases demonstrate that nature and the natural commons can be destroyed for private profit– especially in the name of providing jobs and fueling economic growth.

For example, mountain top removal which has buried thousands of miles of streams with coal seams is still legal under the Obama administration.  The Clean Water Act is supposed to prevent our water systems from being denigrated from these types of activities, yet the Water Standard Quality Index allows site specific pollution levels for contaminants.  Perhaps this is why according to the EPA, approximately half of the rivers, lakes, and bays under EPA oversight were not safe enough for fishing and swimming in 2007.

In the case of Alaska’s Slate Lake, Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK),  said this project will provide an “improved fish habitat.”  The permit which has been extended to Coer Alaska Inc., will allow the company to pollute the lake until 2014– effectively killing all aquatic life in the lake.  The lawyers for the company have argued that this could be a good thing since the lake can be restocked after the project.  This poses both a legal and moral question for humanity– Does nature have the right to exist on its own merits?

The planet’s ecosystems are in the mist of the sixth largest extinction event— this time caused by humans.  In addition, our species consumes 1/3 of all productive land on the planet leaving the rest for the other ten plus million species we inhabit the planet with.  Will economic growth and human consumption supersede the right for species and ecosystems to survive if its economically beneficial?

For the first time, the country of Ecuador has recognized the intrinsic rights oif nature.  In September of 2008, the Ecaudor Constitutional Assembly voted to recognize the inalienable rights belonging to ecosystems in their new constitution. This changes the status of  nature from being a function of property to a rights-bearing entity. Will this ground-breaking law have farther reaching impacts on international law?  Hopefully sooner rather than later as climate change, resource depletion, and pollution accelerates its impacts on the planet.