Consumption figures for computers are minuscule compared to what was required to drive the average 17" CRT of 10 years ago, and the widespread adoption of the S3 power scheme as the default means that computers are using only the power they need to do tasks they are performing right now.
If a man is alone in the woods and there isn't a woke Hollywood around to call him racist, is he still white?
Having provisioned a large number of servers in the last little while, as well as migrating physical servers into the virtual space I can say with firm conviction that the floor space occupied by servers and storage is diminishing rapidly, and the environmental requirements to run 10 servers are around 1/10th of what they were 5 years ago. The wholesale adoption of Virtual Infrastructure is turning rack consolidation into a business. We peaked about 8 months ago and were struggling to fit more stuff into our data centres. We're now struggling to fill NZ's flashest data centre, simply because we can house 60 average business servers and their storage in 2 racks rather than the 12 of 8 months ago.
If a man is alone in the woods and there isn't a woke Hollywood around to call him racist, is he still white?
Computer servers 'as bad' for climate as SUVs
14:29 03 December 2007 by Catherine Brahic
Computer servers are at least as great a threat to the climate as SUVs or the global aviation industry, warns a new report.
Global Action Plan, a UK-based environmental organisation, publishes a report today drawing attention to the carbon footprint of the IT industry in the UK.
"Computers are seen as quite benign things sitting on your desk," says Trewin Restorick, director of the group. "But, for instance, in our charity we have one server. That server has the same annual carbon footprint as your average SUV doing 15 miles to the gallon. Yet, whereas the SUV is seen as a villain from the environmental perspective, the server is not."
The report, An Inefficient Truth, states that with more than 1 billion computers on the planet, the global IT sector is responsible for about 2% of human carbon dioxide emissions each year - a similar figure to the global airline industry.
The energy consumption is driven largely by vast amounts of customer and user data that are stored on the computer servers in most businesses. The rate at which data storage is growing surpasses the growth in the airline industry: in 2006, 48% more data storage capacity was sold in the UK than in 2005, while the number of plane passengers grew by 3%.
Unknown cost
The group ran a survey of some of the largest businesses in the UK in an attempt to find out how aware the industry is of its carbon footprint.
The survey revealed that more than half of the IT professionals surveyed believed their environmental impact was "significant", however:
• 86% of them do not know the carbon footprint of their activities
• two thirds of the departments they work for are not responsible for paying their own energy bills
• more than half do not even see those bills
The bottom line is that IT departments "are buying lots and lots of kit that they have to run and cool without knowing what the energy cost of that kit is", says Restorick.
The survey also revealed that considerable amounts of electricity could be saved by more efficient data storage: 60% of the departments said they were using less than half their storage capacity and 37% said they are storing data indefinitely.
Restorick told New Scientist that simply increasing the efficiency of energy use and data storage could easily cut 30% of power use in businesses. "In theory, this could happen overnight," he says.
The picture has changed massively since 2007. That article is firmly historic in nature.
There's a quiet revolution happening in the background and it is motivated mostly by cost, but the benefit is a hugely reduced carbon footprint.
If a man is alone in the woods and there isn't a woke Hollywood around to call him racist, is he still white?
Farmers/landowners should be allowed to generate and sell power to the grid. A wind gen costs a couple of million $$, but will return very well around the windy west coast, just south and north of Auckland.
Heat pump sales are booming and I'm told that they make a big difference to the power bill. In the direction of up.
Mention was made on the radio a while back of "vampire" appliances. All those things on standby. The "standby" effect on power consumption was mentioned on TV in the past week or so too.
My power bill is modest and I try and keep it that way. My old PC with big CRT monitor has died, and I'm looking around the house at what else I can turn off instead of run on standby
There is a proposal only at this stage. Just Google it.
http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/what...hinui-damn-dam
I have signed a petition opposing the scheme and spoken to locals about it; we spent NY there, just mention the word 'dam' on the West Coast and you'll have a lengthy conversation on your hands.
You're right, it is a beautiful spot and I reckon there must be some alternative. However, the argument for the dam suggests overall savings to West Coast consumers because so much power is lost (the big-wigs say) in just getting it to the area.
I would suggest that if the dam IS built West Coast consumers will see none of the suggested savings, they'll lose a beautiful valley and electicity company profits will rise. But then I'm just a cynical old fart.
Last evening I went to a presentation here in Murchison by the internationally renowned photographer Craig Potton who spoke on behalf of the Wild Rivers group. Most of the presentation was about the Mohikinui River, but a large part was about the dams that are threatening Murchison itself, 3 are planned for the Matakitaki river which runs through Murchison. IT IS THE MOST KAYAKED & RAFTED RIVER IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. Mick Hopkins runs the world renowned NZ Kayak School here, which runs multi day courses for nearly all the Polytechnics in N.Z.(He was one of the forst people to Kayak the Nile from its source & also the Ganges).
Interesting facts that came out is that Murchison makes 23 million bucks a year from its rivers with the Kayakers,Rafters & the extremely well heeled fisherman who come here year after year to fish one of the finest Brown Trout fisheries in the world..... as opposed to the 7 million wholesale that these stupid fucking dams & schemes in a Earthquake Zone A area. So Murch. has to foot the bill & potentially stands to lose far,far more than these schemes will ever make for 30 lousy MW?
They are wanting to put a 43 metre dam at Horseshoe bridge that'll flood a large area of braided river flats ,home to large ammounts of breeding birds....all near an active fault line. I wouldnt want to live in Murchison with that upstream.
Did you know that N.Z could save 6000mw a year with an efficency programme? Thats twice what ALL the proposed schemes are hoping to produce without a single dam. Go figure!!
So here's all these private schemes, (talleys & the like) that get to fuck everyone over.
As for the Mohikinui, I have rafted its length & its stunning. Apart from the construction, there will be no jobs created as they are all unmanned schemes. So my mates & fellow townsfolk will lose out...we rely on the tourist here.
I agree that we will need more power , but surely schemes like this that totally stuff some of the most pristine rivers in N.Z that'll only last if they're lucky a 100 years then they will be silted up & useless.....surely windfarms in the middle of nowhere have got to be more eco-friendly...visual impact only as opposed to the footprint of flooded valleys,fucked local economies & flooding in the case of the Mohikinui, large areas of a designated Wilderness Areas inside a National park. A very dangerous precedent...
Its a joke when they say "Oh , you will get a nice lake to go boaties on" . Well we dont need another fuckin' lake man!! Theres 2 just round the corner- lakes Rotoiti & Rotoroa.
Oh & who is the Minister that'll have a lot to say on this? ThatNick Smith. I can see another set of crosshairs on his forhead.
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The Heart is the drum keeping time for everyone....
If a man is alone in the woods and there isn't a woke Hollywood around to call him racist, is he still white?
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