Green Options » solutions

Can the Internet Help Fight Climate Change?

Govind Singh — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:13:54 +0000

Last week, the Internet celebrated its 40th birthday! Forty glorious years that saw not just the transition from ARPANet to the now popular Internet but also Web 2.0 and what not! The Internet has been a revolution–in the making! The Internet that we know of today has been around for a little over a decade. That is also the time period when awareness and action on the “global” climate crisis has been phenomenal. And the link, evident!

According to the Internet Governance Forum, Internet consumes up to one trillion kilowatt hours of electricity per year, amounting to around 5% of the world’s total electricity consumption. The ‘tools’ of the IT sector are also manufactured using metals of various kinds. So the question remains, can Internet really help solve the climate crisis? The answer, on behalf of a generation grown up with the Internet, a firm Yes!

Here are five ways how Internet is helping fight climate change:

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Bamboo Buyer Beware: Green Decisions Aren’t Always Clear-Cut

Heather Dunham — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:00:25 +0000

We paid a visit recently to one of my favourite toy stores in the whole world, Hot Toads. The physical store itself isn’t all that impressive — it’s a small, concrete-floored basement room in a medical building, with sparsely-stocked wooden shelves, draped with puppets and stuffed toys hanging by clothespins from simple lines strung across the room. The back wall features a working 10-foot long model train table made entirely out of Lego.

But it’s not about the decor — it’s what they carry that makes this place special. Plan Toys. HaPe. Schylling. Plastic toys made from recycled milk jugs. Non-toxic wooden toys. Toys intended to enrich the mind and body of your children, not just feed into consumerism and branding.

And for me, it is a local store, within driving distance, right here in Atlantic Canada. Unfortunately for my American friends reading this, while they do take online orders, Hot Toads only delivers within Canada. Sorry, eh?

One of the many cool items they have is a line of large toy cars called E-Racers, from HaPe’s Bamboo Collection. I had a nice chat with the fellow working there, and learned that apparently these were the first toys to be made from bamboo. I was surprised that, while bamboo has been used for clothes, cutlery and dinnerware, flooring and even wallpaper for some time, the idea of bamboo toys was still relatively new.

He also filled me in on a fact I had previously been unaware of. Of course, bamboo is the new golden child of the eco movement: it grows easily and quickly without pesticides, and is therefore a readily renewable resource with low environmental impact. Bamboo wood is attractive and sturdy, and bamboo cloth is soft and has natural antibacterial properties. As worldwide consumer demand for bamboo has increased dramatically in recent years, some companies have taken to clear-cutting hardwood forests in order to make room for bamboo plantations. And despite bamboo’s rapid growth, difficulty in seed propagation combined with over-harvesting has even threatened some species to near-extinction.

Ugh.

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Conference On Local Solutions For The Energy Crisis

The Dave Room — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:42:39 +0000

While the presidential candidates are talking largely about offshore drilling, nuclear, clean coal, and large scale renewable energy strategies to be undertaken at a national level, there is a whole slate of community-based solutions that We The People can be working on locally.

To find out more, consider attending a conference on local community-based solutions to the energy crisis starting at the end of October in Rochester, Michigan.

Plan C: Individual and Community Survival Strategies for the Energy Crisis

The Fifth US Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions
October 31 – November 2, 2008
Rochester, Michigan
www.plancconference.org

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Environmental Defense Fund: New Report on Innovative Green Business Solutions

edfblog — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:55:05 +0000

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Ideas for businesses, and hope for everyone concerned about global warming - that’s what you get with our just-published, first annual Innovations Review. This new report highlights innovative processes, products, and technologies in a range of different industries.

Green business practices can drive cost savings and create new markets, giving companies a competitive advantage. But what’s next after the basics, like switching to energy-saving light bulbs and printing double-sided?

Here’s one example that caught my eye - a southern California Web hosting company powered entirely by the Sun.

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Low-Energy Water Desalination From Seawater Greenhouse

Joe Mohr — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:15:22 +0000

Three-hundred twenty-six million trillion! It sounds like a number I would come up with as a kid, say, in reference to the number of things I find disgusting about my sister, or the number of reasons I need a new bike, or the number of mosquito bites I got on a weekend camping trip. But, it turns out, 326 million trillion is a real number. It happens to be (approximately—because who could count them all?) the number of gallons of water on our wonderful planet (Earth). That’s an overwhelming, impressive and — when you learn that 98% of that water is ocean water, and therefore too salty to consume, or use for irrigation — frustrating figure!

In these times where climate chaos has caused more frequent severe droughts, and our population continues to grow (read: consume water) at an awesome rate, people are becoming more and more concerned with water conservation. Humanity finds itself increasingly at a loss for freshwater while roughly 315 million trillion gallons of unusable seawater taunts us from our shores.

Sure, desalination plants are becoming more common. They are very expensive, however, and so energy intensive that they only further contribute to the climate change they are attempting remedy (thereby, joining corn-based ethanol as the two largest non-solutions to our climate problems).

Fear not my fellow water-loving earthlings! There is an even better way to remove the salt from salt water: a Seawater Greenhouse! This UK-based company explains the process as one that:

uses seawater to cool and humidify the air that ventilates the greenhouse and sunlight to distill fresh water from seawater. This enables the year round cultivation of high value crops that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to grow in hot, arid (conditions).

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If All Else Fails, Re-Ice the Arctic

Gavin Hudson — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 05:11:14 +0000

Take 8,000 ice barges; mount two industrial ice cannons on each; add a windmill for power; let sit in the arctic with cannons blasting.

This might be the secret tech-heavy recipe for pepping up the faltering Atlantic ocean currents that heat Europe. So says industrial engineer, Peter Flynn of the University of Alberta. The cost: $50 billion USD. Ouch. Perhaps an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure.

Urban Alliance for Sustainability: Connecting the SF Bay Area Green Movement

Sara Holt — Tue, 15 May 2007 13:16:22 +0000

If not us, WHO? If not here, WHERE? If not now, WHEN?

These are the questions that gave birth to the Bay Area Urban Alliance of Sustainability three years ago. With a mission to "Inspire and integrate the sustainability movement,” and a vision to "Support the transformation of the world into a harmonious social, economic and natural environment for the benefit of all," UAS is working to connect local green organizations and individuals through programs centered around networking and community education — essentially giving people a platform where they can access and collaborate with others in the local green scene.

Being a volunteer-run organization, the easiest way to get directly involved in UAS is through volunteering or becoming a member.

As a member you get a number of benefits, including an individual, hour-long sustainability consultation about easy ways to reduce your eco-footprint. You can find out more about anything from feasible food options to green jobs in your local area. You can also ask about other help topics or discuss various green solutions you’ve seen or been involved in.

When people in your zip code sign up, UAS will organize an area-specific potluck to connect you with other green people in your neighborhood.

Members also have access to sustainabilty consultants via phone and website. Check out www.uas.coop for the e-newsletter, or to find out more on collaborative green solutions in the Bay Area.