Let's just police everything for C02 emissions, shall we?
Twenty milligrams; that's the average amount of carbon emissions generated from the time it took you to read the first two words of this article. Now, depending on how quickly you read, around 80, perhaps even 100 milligrams of C02 have been released. And in the several minutes it will take you to get to the end of this story, the number of milligrams of greenhouse gas emitted could be several thousand, if not more.
This may not seem like a lot: "But in aggregate, if you consider all the people visiting a web site and then all the seconds that each of them spends on it, it turns out to be a large number," says Dr. Alexander Wissner-Gross, an Environmental Fellow at Harvard University who studies the environmental impact of computing.
Wissner-Gross estimates every second someone spends browsing a simple web site generates roughly 20 milligrams of C02. Whether downloading a song, sending an email or streaming a video, almost every single activity that takes place in the virtual environment has an impact on the real one.
As millions more go online each year some researchers say the need to create a green Internet ecosystem is not only imperative but also urgent.
"It is part of the whole sustainability picture," Chris Large, head of research and development at UK-based Climate Action Group, told CNN.
"Scientists are saying to us that we have 10 years to take some serious action to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change so taking some sort of initiative is absolutely vital."
Ah yes, there it is! How difficult would it be to paint this doomsday scenario without the inevitable "we've got 10 years" douchebaggery?
A number of studies have highlighted the growing energy demands of computers. A 2007 report from research firm Gartner, for example, estimates the manufacturing, use and disposal of information and communications technology generates about two percent of the world's greenhouse gases -- similar to the level produced by the entire aviation industry.
Anti-virus software firm McAfee reports that the electricity needed just to transmit the trillions of spam emails sent annually equals the amount required to power over two million homes in the United States while producing the same level of greenhouse gas emissions as more than three million cars.
"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," said Bill St. Arnaud of Canarie, a Canada-based internet development organization.
I know an excellent place to send the Carbon Police when they're up and running...
Uncle Albert at play...click to get the full size and scope of the IMAX sized monitors.
It looks to me as though maybe the Greenies are the ones needing to be shackled:
Post from September last:
People who believe they have the greenest lifestyles can be seen as some of the main culprits behind global warming, says a team of researchers, who claim that many ideas about sustainable living are a myth.
According to the researchers, people who regularly recycle rubbish and save energy at home are also the most likely to take frequent long-haul flights abroad. The carbon emissions from such flights can swamp the green savings made at home, the researchers claim.
Think locally, act globally? Isn't that the reverse of the now legendary bumpersticker?
Stewart Barr, of Exeter University, who led the research, said: "Green living is largely something of a myth. There is this middle class environmentalism where being green is part of the desired image. But another part of the desired image is to fly off skiing twice a year...
...or flying off to Tibet or to Earth Day celebrations or Live Earth concerts to help raise consciousness levels and encourage the Great Unenlightened and Unenwashed (namely me), to cut my carbon footprint, reduce, reuse and recycle, when in reality, if I never reduce, reuse and recycle and in fact engage in serial littering, drive around the block several times in cars with under or over inflated tires, I forget which is worse, leave my lear jet idling, burn medical waste and beat sea turtles in my back yard on Fridays, my Carbon Footprint would still be smaller than these sanctimonious fucktards. So obviously there needs to be some sort of enforcement arm of the U.N. created to see to it that these people cease murdering our Mother and stay in their glass holding cells and be forced to live simply so the rest of us can simply live. Any suggestions?
