Can computer users help fight global warming?

[Husse]

Computers use electric power, that in many (but not all) coutries is produced with a residue of CO2. Server parks are probably the main culprits, like the 400 000 or so servers Google uses.
But we could help by not letting our computers be left on when we don't use them.
Any suggestions welcome.
This is written because march of this year was the warmest in Sweden and probably northern Europe in almost a century. Since regular mesurments started around 1850 only 1990 and 1938 has been as warm in southern Sweden and in the northern part only 1920. In Gothenburg the temperature was 18,9 C on march 26 the highest since measurments started in 1859.
And Al Gore was here

[NiksaVel]

I thought we were nearing a "small ice age" with the predicted reduction in sun output?


All my computers are set with their appropriate power saving options... having protection of the lifespan of my hardware in mind a bit more than global warming but still...

[Run N Duck]

/rant
Oh man, I shouldn't even enter the discussion, but.... The earth has been around for quite some time, and goes through changes (temp, land mass shifts etc) constantly... my point being: Only human beings (Al Gore being the head dufus) could be so full of themselves as to think that they could ruin in 200 years what has been here for ages! The solar activity has been increasing steadily recently as well (coincidence I'm sure), but if I had to bet money I'd say the sun is more capable of changing the Earth's climate than Al Gore or Google is. But I will shut my computer off when I leave today so I can cool down Sweden fro April for you Or even better, how about we all mail some money to each other (Kyoto) or oppress that neighbour down the street looking at buying their first computer (policies on African development etc)... those are good ideas right? And Al Gore, if you're listening: stop telling me to save the world when you live in a mansion and suck the power equivalent of a small African nation by yourself!! Oh wait, maybe he's shuffling some money somewhere to make it all better, never mind.
/end rant

[NiksaVel]

[Husse]

Ah well - thought someone would have some thoughts here - but nope
But it is a fact that man contributes to the rapid increase in global warming, the science community is more united in this matter than in just about anything else, as of the latest IPCC meeting.
As for facts of CO2 wikipedia has some to say:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dio ... centration

[hairy_Palms]

Only human beings (Al Gore being the head dufus) could be so full of themselves as to think that they could ruin in 200 years what has been here for ages!

only human beings (america/china being the main protagonists) could be so arrogant as to do what they like, pretend that every action doesnt have consequences and ignore the effect it has on their own habitat...

[carlos]

When I look at my skyline, which is composed of New York city and I see brownish smog hanging over and slowly clearing to a blue above. Obviously that can't be good.

And weather it is a bunch of co-incidents at this time. The fact that people in the area suffer from asthma and cancer when their family history has been clean, surely can't be natures doing.

Is man that perfect that he can do no harm to nature and himself in a short period of time?

[kenetics]

Everyone stay home and telecommute!
I wish public transportation was better in this country.

[civint]

well, as I can't drive ( a combination of having just turned 17, and being so lazy as to not send off liscence application) the trains are the choice for me, but not being much of a mover helps too. as for pc use, well, you know..don't use it so much?

[scorp123]

This is Global Warming:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6rInwb6utQ

Are we smarter than frogs?? Or not?

[Husse]

Looking at what some people say and do, we are not smarter
Really fine video

[Watcher]

Hi, I am a newbie so this is not the smartest way to introduce myself, a controversial subject. Here goes anyway,

What we do know, the earth is getting warmer, what we don't know for sure is if human activity is the cause of it. One thing science knows and the IPCC (which a lot of members are not scientist) overlooked is this, we know from the Ice cores drilled in Antarctica that heat rises first then CO2 level rise afterwards.

So CO2 cannot be the main factor of global warming. In the sixties and seventies it was global cooling, Look at the data from that era and just take global cooling out and add global warming and you have the same propaganda going on. There is no argument about Global warming, what needs to be found out is what is causing it.

Mars too is going through Global Warming according to science. If this is so why did Al Gore not mention this in his film.

[scorp123]

What we do know, the earth is getting warmer, what we don't know for sure is if human activity is the cause of it.

How can you question this?? Yes I know that there are natural factors. But human involvement has kicked everything out of balance and worsened the situation. Need examples?

Look at Australia and what ecologic mess humans have created there by (accidentally?) extinguishing some native species, and even worsened the chaos by introducing foreign animal species which have made matters even worse. There are many more examples of what mess humans have created there. Or New Zealand. The first (Maori) settlers there have extinguished various local species, various giant birds and so on if I am not mistaken.

There are even historic examples from the stone age too. From Europe and from North America. The mamooth isn't the only species humans have very likely exterminated (or at least contributed to the extinction of), there are many indications that various kinds of moose, horses and many others were exterminated in North America and Europe in the moment modern humans arrived there.

Why should today's situation be different? We have already demonstrated time and time again that we will exploit this planet and "Mother Nature" whatever way pleases us, filling our greedy stomachs or greedy pockets as we please ... until it is too late and something stupid happens ... e.g. all the mamooths --our then-source for food-- completely disappear ... or our atmosphere gets so hot that e.g. we here in Switzerland only know snow, cold winters and mountain glaciers from historic documents ... many of our mountains are completely green even during Winter, and Switzerland's oh so famous mountain glaciers have almost disappeared. But of course, green mountains during Winter and violent hurricanes in areas which haven't known this phenomenon before is just the start of it. It can get way worse. Ultimately I think that the movie "The Day after Tomorrow" wasn't so much science-fiction after all ...

We all are the frogs from the video clip, slowly heating up the very kettle we're swimming in.

So CO2 cannot be the main factor of global warming.

No, but our CO2 output is the main factor for kicking a possibly natural phenomenon out of its balance. We're not solving the problem, we're contributing to it. And then plenty!

and you have the same propaganda going on.

Propaganda is what those various US lobbies are doing, trying to disprove global warming, denying that it is taking place, or now that they can't deny it, they come forward with argument such as "but CO2 isn't even the main factor here ... " Right guys! Just carry on and fill your greedy pockets ... As I said, we're the frogs from that video up there.

There is no argument about Global warming, what needs to be found out is what is causing it.

That's not very wise in my opinion, sorry to say that. Whatever the reasons behind global warming, whatever the reasons for this problem are ... the most important thing is that we humans stop adding to the problem. Right now, we're part of the problem, and not part of the solution.

Mars too is going through Global Warming according to science. If this is so why did Al Gore not mention this in his film.

Maybe because no human lives on Mars? No human has to live there, no human depends on Mars' atmosphere? So I suppose then that for us humans right now Mars is the last thing we need to worry about and Al Gore doesn't need to mention Mars. Mars can go straight to Hades or supernova or it can go to absolute zero, at 0° Kelvin. It is irrelevant for us. We don't live there. We live here.

[clem]

You're probably going to hate them... a lot of people here in Ireland are quite happy with the "new" climate...

of course they remember those snowmen and snowball fights from when they were young and people realize things have changed, globally for the worse; but in a scary shortsighted kinda national way for the better here locally as well.

The thing is, it's hard to focus people's attention to long term problems simply because they don't find it practically interesting enough. May it be global warming or hubbert pikes they're just not interested... doesn't affect them... not directly.. not right now anyway.

I thought this was bad but I'm starting to accept the fact that people after all are only human, and that's what human do, they focus on things in the "here and now".

In the whole Galway County we won't have drinkable water until late September... now ok there's been floods and all, but as a nation (and Ireland is not the only country in this case, far from it) we simply don't give a damn about ecology. The only problem people have with their SUV is not how much CO2 it emits but how long it takes them to go through the traffic jams in the morning.

Our whole culture is based on individual consumption and immediate satisfaction. In this state of mind ecology is an aberration. I don't think people will ever be ready to change, I think they will go on like that until they can't possibly and physically go any further with this way of life. Be it global poverty, famine, economical breakdown or ice melt/inundations, they'll only stop when they'll be made to stop, and I don't think any government will risk to tell them things they don't want to hear... nature will eventually do that for them.

Clem

[angel naygel]

There is a project which has been realized to fight against Global Warming . Its goal is to reduce CO2 emissions by optimizing power consumption.
But it needs a Windows box:
http://www.localcooling.com/

In developed countries, some people are aware of ecological problems. But in such countries such as China or India, where economic activities grow exponentially, they do not care about these issues (except some international-wide companies like Lenovo). China is currently the second biggest CO2 emitter, but a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) said by 2009 China would surpass the US to be the top CO2 emitter.
Efforts took in rich countries are not enough to face against ecological disasters in developing countries. So it is impossible to reduce CO2 emissions in globality :/.

[scorp123]

You're probably going to hate them... a lot of people here in Ireland are quite happy with the "new" climate...

I can imagine. I've recently seen a report about Greenland where the Inuit ("Eskimos") are on one hand happy too: The climate got so warm that they can now grow vegetables in their gardens and have cows on all those new grassy areas. No more importing this stuff from USA or Europe. No more having to hunt seals in a harsh climate, if they're hungry they can now in some areas have as much beef steak as they want. On the other hand they lose their identity and traditions. There simply is "no need" for their old ways of life any more. Why do you need to eat raw meat (Inuit traditionally don't cook the meat they eat ... in their ice deserts there simply is nothing to get a fire going with!) when now you can be "civilised" and eat vegetables all day long and have a juicy beef steak or hamburger ...

people realize things have changed, globally for the worse; but in a scary shortsighted kinda national way for the better here locally as well.

Exactly.

The thing is, it's hard to focus people's attention to long term problems simply because they don't find it practically interesting enough. May it be global warming or hubbert pikes they're just not interested... doesn't affect them... not directly.. not right now anyway.

Exactly.

they'll only stop when they'll be made to stop

Exactly. We hunted the mamooth until there were none left. We will continue to use fossil fuels to the last drip. And we will continue to pollute this planet with our vast industries until ... well, something stops us.

[clem]

Not to mention that it takes fuel to dig fuel... Whatever price you sell your fuel, if it takes more fuel to dig less fuel (cause we're basically left with deep and hard to extract reserves), you just don't do it anymore. For this reason we won't go through the last drip... we'll contemplate the vast amount of remaining fuel which could have saved our lives for an extra year or two and which we can't afford to extract...

There's a part of me who'd like to witness that rather than to leave this pleasure to our children/grand_children..

Call it cruelty if you want.. or the "I told you" syndrom

Clem

[blogger]

Quoting Clem:Our whole culture is based on individual consumption and immediate satisfaction. In this state of mind ecology is an aberration.

Money, money, money so we can have everything we don't need!
Can you buy happiness at the Super Market?

Suppose somebody shut off the air that we breathe? Does all else matter?

Clem:the "I told you" syndrome
[/b]
Pandora's box I say!
Greetings, the Blogger

[kenetics]

The trouble is that global warming has become such a political issue that it is hard to determine the actual facts due to all the rhetoric that is thrown about by politicians and their political parties. Even scientists seemed to be polarized on the issue depending on their party affiliation. I do think there is some good evidence of environmental abuse causing changes in the world's climate. The distruction of the vast forest areas of the Amazon basin is one topic that most people can agree on.

Scorp, I'm glad I don't have wooly mammoths trampling across my back yard! Seriously, all species are doomed to distinction eventually when they can no longer adapt to the planet's changing conditions - including man. The dinosaurs died out which paved the way for mammals and eventually us.

[kenetics]

Can you buy happiness at the Super Market?

Yes, It comes in a 6-pack.


(Just kidding )