Effects of IT on Global Warming - Article Example

Effects of IT on global warming “Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, engaged in the most elaborate, well organized scientific collaboration in the history of humankind, have produced long-since a consensus that we will face a string of terrible catastrophes unless we act to prepare ourselves and deal with the underlying causes of global warming.” -AL GORE, speech at National Sierra Club Convention, Sept. 9, 2005 Global Warming – Global warming is a dramatic and unexpected surge in the temperature of the climate, which is a common abode for many different species and not just human beings, caused by a series of negative human activities. Global Warming is caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas and large scale deforestation. Burning of fossil fuels releases a large amount of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). These gases act as a thick blanket and absorb thermal radiations emitted by the earth’s surface, thereby resulting in the planet to warm up significantly. According to the reports of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global greenhouse gas emissions have grown with an increase in 70% between 1970 and 2004 The increase in temperature is a kind of anomaly in ecosystem and this anomaly will have severe consequences to follow. It will cause severe storms and droughts, glaciers to melt, rising seas, changes in weather pattern and spread of diseases. There will be an increase in the sea level and the low lying islands will left completely devastated. The inhabitants of the cities as well as other vegetation will see a dramatic increase in pests and other insects who will thrive due to an increased temperature, thus leading significantly to unexpected calamities. Loads of animal and plant species will be extinct and the habitat such as coral reefs and alpine meadows will be disheveled. Heat waves, due to global warming, have already caused a loss of 30,000 lives in Europe and 1500 deaths in India, in the year 2003. The likely effects of Global warming1 have been shown below in the following table:- Therefore we come to a conclusion that change in temperature will have an unbearable impact not only on the human civilization but also on the entire race of different species existent across the globe. What we should actively concentrate is the steps that need to be taken urgently in order to prevent global warming. As per Al Gore’s ‘Inconvenient Truth’ we need to take the following steps:- 1. Every individual must contribute by trying to reduce his personal greenhouse gas emission. 2. Corporations should do their bit in finding new sources of saving energy thereby helping environment as well as reducing cost. 3. Concentration on saving energy, increasing efficiency and renewable sources of energy like wind energy, solar energy etc. These days, most of the industries, including the IT industry is under the scanner of government in order to curb the emission of green house gases. You may be astonished as to how can an IT industry be a contributor in emission of greenhouse gases. The blame goes to the huge data centers and gigantic servers which are used to store the information in such industries. The IT industry contributes the same amount of emission as the global air travel industry2. It is believed that 7000 kg of CO2 is emitted every million Google search. But given the advance in technology and huge dependence of internet for even the smallest of things has made the life practically impossible without internet. The personal computer these days has become the only source to store vital data for most of the individuals who depend on their computer to do everything, right from online transfers of funds to pay their bills and even the place to shop goods online. The IT companies functioning across the globe are consuming a huge quantum of energy. If we take the data of only a developing country like India, around 8 million people are employed in IT sector. It has been observed a general observation that 60% of the people in any IT industry, do not switch off their computer system while retuning back to home. A typical computer consumes about 50 W of energy every single hour, if it is not functional or in a sleep state. . Even if take an approximate amount of energy consumed in a month by this data that will amount to:- Approx. Energy wasted in a month in IT companies in 16 hours that a system is not functional:- 50W * 16*8000000*60/100*30 11520 Mega Watts of energy WASTED every single month by not switching the systems off while returning back to home. That means in just a single developing country, approx. 11520 Mega Watts of energy has been wasted by IT companies, considering only the usage of only PC and nothing else. Imagine this figure for the whole world, what a humungous amount will it be? Although the above all figures explain the dark side of the coin, but still IT has contributed in saving energy as well. Subodh bhagat, the Vice President, Energy Efficiency at Sun Microsoft remarks that although internet is carbon negative, it still saves a lot of energy. Imagine the amount of energy spent if everyone uses conventional sources of energy by literally going at a bank to do every enquiry or pay their bills or do a railway booking and to do shopping. A lot more energy would have been wasted in any such operation, had they been done without the use of internet every single time. Moreover the amount of papers wasted, by not saving the data on computer but on papers, would have been in billions every single year. Today each and every document of smallest of companies, the financial statements from bank and even the utility bills are sent to consumers online in most cases, thereby saving a huge amount of paper. It can be inferred from the data above that its hard to Go Green without IT but there definitely can be some measures which must be taken by the IT industries which will help them in achieving not only a better operating profit by reducing the cost but also contribute to the environment in a real manner by saving the environment which is a common abode not only for human beings but for many other living creatures. Most of the software companies have recently started taking steps to reduce their power consumption. Like for instance HSBC, amidst its Global Technology Centers (these are the centers which produce software for the HSBC group worldwide) organizes a competition in which every employee at the centre that consumes minimum energy is rewarded with a gift. The competition takes in the data every month. Such initiatives foster an environment of energy consumption amongst colleagues not only at the workplace but also at their home. Some other companies have also started initiatives in which the manager gets a report of the employee who miss to switch his/her workstation at the end of the day and a reason may be sought for any such behavior of the employee. There are a few other IT companies who have changed their infrastructure to include a separate air conditioning system over a group of workstations rather than a centralized system. By following this, the group of people when leave the office can inform the administration authority to get the air conditioner switched off, thereby saving a considerable amount of energy. So by reward or punishment, various companies in IT sector have at least started the initiative of saving the energy. Some other steps that can be taken are:- 1. Switching on to renewable sources of energy like Wind energy or solar energy. 2. A strict monitoring for the usage of printers should also be in place and employees should be refrained from printing only if it is a serious need. 3. Government should help with the funds for any such initiation by IT industries, because cost of installation for any such set up is usually high whereas over a period of time the cost comes down because of lower maintenance cost and lower cost of operation as the fuel which is wind or solar energy comes literally for free. Switching on to renewal sources of energy may be a paradigm shift for IT industries. A report3 says that the cost of Wind Energy cost around 4 cents per kilo watt hour for commercial purpose. The analysis presented in the report is as follows:- Initial costs: The initial cost is the cost obtained after including all expenses to evaluate, buy, install and start-up a wind system. Commercial 600 kW system = $800,000 Operation and maintenance costs: Assuming the operating cost per annum to be 2% of the initial capital employed. For the commercial wind system, the annual operating costs are: Commercial 2% x $800,000 = $16,000 Total annual costs over expected lifetime: To compute annual cost of the wind turbines. Annual Cost = (Initial Cost/Expected Life) + Annual Operating Costs Wind turbine manufacturers estimate a useful life of between 20 and 30 years for their product. Using 30 years as expected lifetime: Commercial ($800,000/30) + $16,000 = $42,667 per year B. Cost Per Kilowatt Hour The cost per kilowatt-hour will be: Cost Per kWh = Annual Cost/Annual Energy Output Annual energy output: Based on the average wind speed, a conservative estimate of the wind turbine capacity factor will be 0.20 for the commercial system, although it may vary minutely based on difference in the location of the plant. Therefore, the annual energy outputs of the two systems would be: Commercial 600kw x 0.20 x 24 x 365 = 1,051,200 kilowatt-hrs And, therefore, the cost per kilowatt-hr will be:- Commercial $42,667/1,051,200 kwh = $0.04 per kilowatt-hr. However the report presented by the web site does not take in consideration some of the features like:- 1. Interest paid on borrowed money 2. Insurance 3. Utility buy-back 4. Wind turbine resale value Considering the magnitude of energy needed by the IT sector, we should seriously consider Wind energy as a source of main supply to our IT industries. The study on IT industry reflects clearly that there is definitely a scope of reducing the consumption of energy and some IT industries have started realizing it. Some of the companies have also started taking initiatives in terms of trying their operations with renewable source of energy which is visible from the client list of Wind Energy major, Suzlon Energy that has amongst its big list of clients has a mention of software firms. We should realize that IT is the backbone of our energy conservation drive because with the emergence of newer technologies, our reliability on conventional modes has really come down. If IT industries themselves are successful in their endeavor to cut down their energy bills, which is not a distant possibility considering the initiatives they have started taking, soon the energy consumption meter for the world will come down making it a suitable abode for all the living creatures. Works Cited: Houghton, John. “Global Warming.” 2005. Institute of Physics. 13 February 2009 . IPCC, 2007: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, L.A. Meyer (eds)], Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. 14 February 2009 . Lively, Barry. “A Brief Introduction to Global Warming.” 2007. Lively Images. 13 February 2009. . Reddy, Sudha. “Energy Consumption and the Opportunities for the IT Industry.” 5 February 2009. Triple Pundit. 14 February 2009. . “The Economics of Wind Power.” 4 April 2005. Michigan Technological University. 14 February 2009. . Read More