Environment

iTunes = Green and Vista = Pollution?

- Adam Clare 6 Comments

Two interesting takes on software popped up on the interweb recently. I find it interesting the potential that using software has for reducing pollution thanks to digitization.

First, we have a blogger arguing that iTunes saves the environment because less people are buying CDs (and the CDs don’t need to be shipped).
“Steve Jobs also announced that Apple is currently selling 5,000,000 songs per day. This is about 416,000 CD’s per day. By buying your music from the Apple Store, you are helping to prevent a stack of CD’s 2.6 miles high from having to be manufactured PER DAY.”

Apple uses DRM (Digital Rights Management, which is bad), and so does Microsoft Vista. Vista, the new windows, will harm the environment thanks to DRM (see why it’s bad?).
“There will be thousands of tonnes of dumped monitors, video cards, and whole computers that are perfectly capable of running Vista — except for the fact they lack the paranoid lock down mechanisms Vista forces you to use. That’s an offensive cost to the environment. Future archaeologists will be able to identify a “Vista Upgrade Layer” when they go through our landfill sites”

Be lazy and don’t upgrade to the awful Windows Vista.

Organization to Help Green PCs

- Adam Clare

The Green Advisory Service has set out to help PC firms do less environmental damage. In the UK a PC left on overnight can cost upwards of £53 in electricity. The cost of running a PC is not cheap for the pocketbook or for the environment and this is what the Green Advisory Service will help change.

“Organisations are increasingly focused on their environmental profile and are beginning to recognise the reputation and cost advantages of a green approach,” said Heidi-Lynn Mitchell, product services director for Computacenter.

This is partly thanks to a major European Union directive – The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive (WEEE).”

From Air to Rail

- Adam Clare

Air travel is very, very, very bad for the environment. So why am I bringing it up on this website? (yeah for rhetorical questions!)

A company is proposing to take old airplane fuselages and convert them into monorails. This just sounds cool! And it is! Energy for the trains comes from solar power, wind power, and regenerative breaking.

This is such a good use for old environmentally unfriendly technology because it takes it and makes it into a sustainable transportation system.

It has yet to be prototyped, but let’s hope that this system is built.

Net Metering in the USA

- Adam Clare

Net metering is a novel concept that allows property owners who produce their own energy to sell surplus power back to the electric grid. There are many, many, many reason why this should be adopted and the International Business Times looks at people are selling energy back to the grid not for profit, but for philosophical reasons. The profit must help the decisions though.

“Net metering essentially allows people to become mini-power producers. Programs vary state to state, but they are typically coupled with financial incentives that make it easier to invest thousands of dollars for photovoltaic panels, windmills or fuel cells. Since sun and wind are intermittent, customers still rely on the grid for steady service. The meter runs backward when more energy is produced than a customer consumes.”

Eco Challenge

- Adam Clare

The finalists are now online for the Eco Challenge, which is something that MTV and GE have conceived together.

“The mtvU GE ecomagination Challenge is asking college students from around the country to develop new, creative ways to green their campus. We’re looking for innovative and groundbreaking ideas that can have a positive impact at the local level or the global level — or both. The sky is (literally) the limit.”

To me this seems like an odd partnership for an environmental cause, but whatever their reasons I’m glad they are doing it.

Thanks, mkb!

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