Month: April 2007

Sun is the Greenest

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

Computers burn a lot of energy on our planet, in fact it’s 4-5% of total world power consumption. Well, Sun Microsystems knows this and is doing something about it. I wonder how they stack up to sustainable linux, black google, but, they are better than windows and Apple.

For him, this is just good business. “Energy responsibility is about to become a society-wide business imperative,” he says. “All my projects have measurable business benefit. You might say the ‘eco’ in my title is for economics as well as ecology.”

“We’re not only part of the solution but also part of the problem,” he confesses. What he means is that computers are egregious energy hogs. Data centers alone, Sun calculates, account for 2-3 percent of total world energy use, with all IT making up more like 4-5 percent. At big companies, 20 percent of total energy costs can typically be accounted for by information technology.

Irish Smoking Ban Helps Lungs

- Adam Clare

In Ireland they implemented a smoking ban in March 2004 and researchers have noted a marked increase in air quality as a result. The research reports that an all out smoking ban in the workplace is wonderfully successful in reducing exposure to harmful particles, and, or course carcinogens. This Irish study supports previous research.

The workers were all given lung function tests before the ban came in and a year later….The bar-workers said they were exposed to around 40 hours per week before the ban came in, falling to 25 minutes afterwards – a 99% decrease in exposure.

And lung function tests improved dramatically in non-smoking barmen post-ban.

Billboards Banned in São Paulo

- Adam Clare 2 Comments

no adsThe Brazilain city of Ṣo Paulo has been praised by many with their recent law that dictates that limits of outdoor advertising Рa billboard ban. To get an idea of what a city looks like without ugly advertising check out these images.

City planners, architects and environmental advocates have argued enthusiastically that the prohibition, through a new “clean city” law, brings São Paulo a welcome step closer to an imagined urban ideal.

The law is “a rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash,” Roberto Pompeu de Toledo, a columnist and author of a history of São Paulo, wrote in the weekly newsmagazine Veja. “For once in life, all that is accustomed to coming out on top in Brazil has lost.”

Have A Heart! And Possibly Two Kidneys…….

- Vanessa King

I’ve recently been thinking about getting that organ donor sticker thingie added to my health card. Especially since I just read an article that spoke a bit about the subject. Did you know that when you die your old body could save up to seven lives??? Also, many people are afraid that if they are an organ or tissue donor that this means that they will be treated less fairly at the hospital because they are seen more as potential donors than as patients deserving the best care. Not true! The doctors that care for us and the organ donor guys are usually two separate teams of people. So no doc in their right mind is going to let you die because they want your heart and possibly both kidneys. You will also not end up in a crazy scientists lab experiment and become some crazy frankenstein of organs. Although that could also be kinda cool.

Perhaps the idea sounds a tad morbid, but if my own passing could in turn save others lives then I think thats a pretty cool thing. With this form I vow to give up my guts for a good cause. I can even choose which ones I don’t feel like giving away. Although at that point at can’t see myself being too picky.

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