For computers, it’s not easy being green
Society has become tuned in to the effects of global warming in recent years, but green computers remain a relatively unknown concept in mainstream society. There may not be an Oscar-winning documentary or famous global summit to educate the public, but green computing is a massive emerging issue in our climate-conscious society.
A lot of fuss is made over the impact of airplanes and cars on carbon emissions, but a recent study found that electronic devices such as computers are responsible for 2% of all carbon emissions - the same as airlines.
This is a huge chunk of unnecessary waste going up into our atmosphere, and for all the flak given to the airline industry, the computer industry has emerged relatively unscathed. Thankfully, IT giants like Google, Microsoft and Intel have, in recent years, been proactive on the issue and vowed to make green computing a priority.
This environmental movement starts in the development stage. Power supplies need to be redesigned to be more energy efficient, and hardware (specifically hard drives and those old CRT monitors) need to be built so that they can be disposed of in an environmentally-friendly manner.
Beyond development, there are companies that are emerging to address these issues. They perform a variety of tasks for businesses and home users, from the aforementioned safe disposal to providing advice on how to help your computer “go green.”
It’s not only a great business plan, but it also provides a needed push towards manufacturers and developers - if there’s a market for green products, they get made.
For products that currently emit so much unnecessary carbon emissions, this is such a crucial step! We are a technologically-dependent society, but that technology, at present, is also killing our planet. Steps must be taken to prevent this.
Which brings us to the massive task of educating the public about buying green computers. For once - libertarians be damned - this may be an appropriate venue for the government to step in.
The United States government, despite being the biggest producer of carbon emissions in the world, has in the past offered tax incentives for households who purchase hybrid cars (for what it’s worth, they also - inexplicably - offer incentives to households that purchase SUVs). But this isn’t enough. There needs to be sweeping legislation to educate and support the public in all aspects of green issues, so that “going green” is made as easy as possible. This will not only help ease the way into green computing but also into a green lifestyle.
It shouldn’t be hard to “go green”, but unfortunately the government is still the biggest obstacle in the process. Growing up, my dad - a network administrator for the state, and then federal, government - would tell tales of how it was actually someone’s job to take old computers out to the dumpster and beat them with a hammer so no one tried to steal them. Then they were thrown in with the rest of the garbage.
What an environmental risk!
It shouldn’t be rocket science - scheduling a truck to pick-up old computers once a fortnight - but government resistance is strong. Until green computers are prioritised by those people, we can only hope that the movement garners enough attention on its own to move out of the Land of Fringe Issues and into our collective social conscience.
