Computers and C02: Bewilderment Amid the Marigolds

Driving through a suburban street one morning last week, I saw two of the most important technological inventions of modern civilization fastened to one another in a way I’d never imagined. There, hunched against a colorful burst of marigolds and a mailbox, a toilet and a desktop computer were stacked together and tied with rope, waiting at the curb for trash collectors to haul them off to our local landfill.

I don’t know anything about the porcelain reclamation industry, but I understand that a commode can be ground down and the porcelain used for making other products. As for the computer, I know that the toxins inside make it among the worst things you can toss into a landfill, as the lead, mercury and other toxic materials used in its manufacture can leach into the soil and water supply, poisoning the environment.

The significance of randomly seeing a PC monitor and hard drive tower tethered to a toilet intent for improper disposal popped into my head later that day when I read an online CNN article that stated the manufacture, transport and use of personal computers and laptops has what some experts say is the most significant impact on global carbon emissions, producing roughly 200 million tons of emissions a year. As millions of people buy new laptops and computers every year, this figure could triple by the end of the next decade, according to a study by the Climate Group and Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI).

Then I was bewildered and alarmed as I discovered that the same study estimated fixed broadband technology accounts for about 4 million tons of carbon emissions each year and that could reach 50 million tons of emissions by 2020.

According to Dr. Alexander Wissner-Gross, an Environmental Fellow at Harvard University who studies the environmental impact of computing, almost every activity that takes place in the virtual environment has an impact on the real world. Every second that a person spends browsing a simple website generates roughly 20 milligrams of C02, Wissner-Gross says, emphasizing the need and urgency to create a green Internet ecosystem.

"Most people don't appreciate that the computer on your desk is contributing to global warming and that if its electricity comes from a coal power plant it produces as much C02 as a sports utility vehicle," Bill St. Arnaud of Canarie, an Internet development organization, said in the CNN article. "Some studies estimate the Internet will be producing 20 percent of the world's greenhouse gases in a decade. That is clearly the wrong direction. That is clearly unsustainable."

So what do we do? The Internet and the technology that delivers it are among the most useful and – from a modern business standpoint – necessary implements of information at our disposal. Should we be as concerned about its use as we are the manufacture and disposal of computers?

I’m having a lot of trouble coming to grips with the fact that my everyday work duties and after work leisure surfing can cause significant damage to the environment. It’s like trying to justify driving my car to work when I know it emits pollution, even though I drive the most energy-efficient vehicle I can afford. So in recognition of the broadband news, I’ll try to be as conservative as possible with my broadband use. I guess that means I also need to say more with fewer words so you can read faster and thereby generate fewer milligrams of carbon emissions.

I’ll sum up with my reaction to the toilet-PC combo perched at the curb. I picked up both items before the trash truck arrived and placed them in the back of my pollutant-emitting car. The computer will be recycled, its salvageable components used to extend the life of other machines; the rest to deflect the use of raw materials.

Maybe the commode will make a good planter for marigolds.

Comments

[cheap computers]

I don’t know anything about the porcelain reclamation industry, but I understand that a commode can be ground down and the porcelain used for making other products.

[cheap computers]

I saw two of the most important technological inventions of modern civilization fastened to one another in a way I’d never imagined.