When It Comes To IT, There Shouldn't Be A Conflict Between Efficiency And The Environment
from the two-sides-of-the-same-coin dept
Speaking at a conference, an analyst at Gartner prodded the IT industry to take the environment more seriously, as he noted that information and communication technology contributes as much carbon dioxide as the airline industry does. This has become a pretty big topic of late, as many companies have announced measures to reduce their environmental footprint, while funding for green technology has soared. Still, the analyst's concern seems a little bit misplaced. It's totally meaningless to say that IT produces the same amount of carbon dioxide as airplanes, since IT is a much bigger component of the overall economy, as evidenced by the relative size of IT firms and airlines. Also, this ignores the fact that the whole point of IT is to make things more efficient. You can't talk about the resources a piece of technology uses up without talking about the resources that it saves. The real problem is that by fretting about the industry's power consumption, it assumes that this is not already an issue being taken seriously. Environmental concerns notwithstanding, companies have always been interested in ways to reduce their electricity bill. The key thing to recognize is that the goals of reducing environmental impact and becoming more efficient not only go hand in hand, they're basically the same thing.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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The CO2 smoke screen
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Re: The CO2 smoke screen
What we really need to do is buy the most efficient and then keep it for as long as possible.
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Re: Re: The CO2 smoke screen
Depends on your definition of 'possible'. It's certainly possible to keep it long past the point where its power inefficiency is worse than the production wastes of a new computer(which will likely be more power efficient).
Laptops are a perfect example.. While individual components of computers tend to get smaller and use less power, they are constantly being upgraded in ways that use more power. However, laptops are still forcing more computing power into devices with lighter batteries(Less batteries) and longer battery life(Lower power usage)... And now the same technologies to lower battery usage are moving to desktops, to lower overall energy usage.
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Re: The CO2 smoke screen
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Re: The CO2 smoke screen
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But wait...
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Re:
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Everytime you turn around, it's something else...
Politicians never make a big deal out of anything unless it's adding cash to their bank accounts.
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Not Up to the Usual Standards
"It's totally meaningless to say that IT produces the same amount of carbon dioxide as airplanes, since IT is a much bigger component of the overall economy". Why does that make it meaningless? If carbon emissions is a problem, then we want to look at the biggest contributors. Sure, the IT industry may be more pollution-efficient than other sectors of the economy, but due to its great size, any inefficiencies are magnified and should be examined.
"The key thing to recognize is that the goals of reducing environmental impact and becoming more efficient not only go hand in hand, they're basically the same thing." I think this is a bit of an overstatement. I certainly agree that they do go hand in hand, but left to their own devices, businesses will focus on cost-efficiency, not environmental-efficiency. That's why computers are packed in so much styrofoam and other packing materials. It's cheaper, due to the costs of repairing/replacing items damaged in transit, but more environmentally damaging.
Not up to the usual Techdirt standards, guys.
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