Schwarzenegger’s ebook plans are not a greener option

California’s plans to drop traditional textbooks in favour of online material will no doubt spare a few trees – but Arnie should be choosing the greenest option by rolling out dedicated e-reader devices at the same time, says Duncan Graham-Rowe

via Schwarzenegger’s ebook plans are not a greener option | Duncan Graham-Rowe | Environment | guardian.co.uk .

…plus a conversation with colleagues at coffee this morning has me thinking. If the Guardian article’s references are to be believed, I can deliver you a whole range of statistical snippets. Did you know that:

• the pulping industry is the third largest consumer of fossil fuels;
• it takes 10 litres of water to make one A4 piece of paper;
• in the US alone, half a million trees are felled every week just for Sunday newspapers; 
• reading an online newspaper for 30 minutes a day produces more emissions than reading a paper version;
• the reverse is true if you read them for just 10 minutes;
• Amazon’s Kindle DX uses electronic-paper displays which use hardly any energy to maintain an image (or text) on a screen.

I’d like to know how my team can quantify it’s output. We work hard, and produce, hopefully, some good web developments.

But the team uses energy to do the development work, and then the developed systems sit on servers consuming energy, and are delivered (over a network which consumes electricity) to users on PCs which also consume energy.  

Again, I wonder, can we work in IT in a Hannover Principles (PDF) kind of way? Anyone doing this? 

For those not in the know, The Hannover Principles (Design for Sustainability) are:

1. Insist on rights of humanity and nature to co-exist
2. Recognize interdependence.
3. Respect relationships between spirit and matter.
4. Accept responsibility for the consequences of design.
5. Create safe objects of long-term value.
6. Eliminate the concept of waste.
7. Rely on natural energy flows.
8. Understand the limitations of design.
9. Seek constant improvement by the sharing of knowledge. 

Some sound airy-fairy, but check the detail. Can you argue with number 6, or 4, or 9?

Professor Hans Rosling has been credited by Microsoft’s Bill Gates as one of his inspirations to give so much to charity – the reason? Beautiful graphs.

Mr Rosling makes animated graphs, like the above graph comparing the UK and China over the last 200 years, for his non-profit organisation Gapminder.org.

Using data from international organisations such as the UN, he hopes his graphs will persuade people to give up their misconceptions about the modern world.

via BBC – Today.

I thought the style of graphic looked familiar to an aspect of Google Analyzer. Guess who bought Trendalyzer from Gapminder in March 2006? 

Here’s one looking at CO2 output of America and China

Many more videos of statistcs here, and you can use their tool to compare your own choice of statistics with Gapminder World.

of the 12 countries considered least at risk, including Britain, all but one are industrially developed. Together they have made nearly $72bn available to adapt themselves to climate change but have pledged only $400m to help poor countries. “This is less than one state in Germany is spending on improving its flood defences,”

via Global warming causes 300,000 deaths a year, says Kofi Annan thinktank | Environment | guardian.co.uk .

Unfortunately the Guardian’s article fails to provide the report’s title or a link, but I think it is called the Human Impact Report… 

Summary of the Report:

Climate Change is here. It has a human face. This report details the silent crisis occurring around the world today as a result of a global climate change. It is a comprehensive account of the key impacts of climate change on human society. Long regarded as a distant, environmental or future problem, climate change is already today a major constraint on all human efforts. It has been creeping up on the world for years, doing its deadly work in the dark by aggravating a host of other major problems affection society, such as malnutrition, malaria and poverty. This report aims at breaking the silent suffering of millions. Its findings indicate that the impacts of climate change are each year responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths with hundreds of millions of lives affected. Climate change is a serious threat to close to three quarters of the world population. Half a billion people are at extreme risk. Worst affected are the world´s poorest groups, who lack any responsibility for causing climate change. 

 Full executive summary here.

(As usual) I’m no expert, but I think the HPs are focussed on buildings and objects. We build web digital applications. Each time we create new systems we’re creating requirements for more and more servers, more storage, and more use of energy.

Is this sustainable? Should we be trying to work out how to produce more information services but with less resource requirements?

Thoughts on a recycled postcard please…

Image from Flickr user: nwfb

…but over here we worry more about privacy

Google’s controversial Street View hits the UK | OUT-LAW.COM

Start today: don’t have a BLT for lunch, go for something with no meat. It won’t kill you and you won’t have to worry about the provenance of the meat you’re not eating.

Oh, and I’m not vegetarian…