There is a growing consensus that global warming is one of the greatest threats facing humanity. Increasingly, governments and citizens are becoming aware of the severity of this threat and are clamoring for solutions. However, there is a potential to allow the Internet community to provide leadership in addressing global warming. This is a community that is used to rapid changes and includes many of the most innovative people in the business world.
First, let’s review a few points about global warming. At least a 15 to 30 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 will be needed to keep the temperature increase less than 2°C, and a deeper reduction by 60 to 80 percent may be needed by 2050. This means that it will be necessary to go beyond incremental improvements in energy efficiency, current lifestyles, and business practices if we are ever going to have any hope of mitigating the threat of global warming.
The strategic use of new Internet applications and business models can contribute significantly to energy efficiency and sustainable economic growth, as well as job creation. It can increase efficiency and innovation by allowing people to work in more flexible ways. More importantly, new Web applications will also ensure a shift from products to services built around next-generation Internet tools like SOA and Web 2.0, among others.
A great example of leadership in addressing global warming is a new program from Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) called the Connected Urban Development initiative. The purpose of this program is to work with various cities and other organizations in the U.S. and other countries to pilot new, innovative solutions that will minimize global carbon dioxide emissions. Such solutions include new approaches to telecommuting, intelligent traffic management systems, smart buildings, etc. Although this is a pro bono program on Cisco's part, once again the company is thinking ahead of the curve and establishing a mindset linking solutions for global warming with Cisco technology.
At the same time, while the world wrestles with the challenges of global warming, the Internet research community is doing some serious soul searching on the future of the Internet. To date, most of the discussion has been about technology issues of IPv4 versus IPv6, next-generation Internet versus next-gen network, network neutrality, semantic Web versus Web services, and so on.
Fortunately, there is the promising new concept of "Internet virtualization," which may considerably reduce the power consumption of routers, switches, and computers. Researchers are now talking about building virtual computers, networks, routers, and switches as a key architectural feature of the future Internet. Initiatives from the National Science Foundation, the Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI), and User Controlled Light Paths (UCLP) are all based around the concept of representing physical resources such as computers, networks, and routers as independent virtual resources.
Virtualization permits multiple, independently managed networks and virtual organizations to exist on a common high-energy-efficiency network substrate. It will allow all the modern advantages of intelligence and control at the edge to be maintained. New applications and services -- such as peer-to-peer and Web 2.0 -- can be deployed by users without getting permission of the owners of the underlying substrate.
Large, centralized, and extremely efficient ICT equipment using renewable sources of energy, such as wind and solar power, may be the future physical architecture of the Internet. No one wants to go back to the bad old days of large, centralized mainframes and carrier networks.
The bottom line is that the future Internet represents an incredible leadership opportunity for Internet researchers and corporations to find new solutions and create new business opportunities in terms of reducing global warming, one of the greatest challenges facing this country, if not this planet.
[In next week’s ThinkerNet post, I will discuss a similar challenge for the Internet research community: How the Internet can enable the average consumer to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.]
— Bill St. Arnaud, Senior Director of Advanced Networks, Canarie Inc.
I believe there are many ways to save our planet, but the internet is one of the greatest tools available to use in the challenge of basically changing the world. With the Internet at our finger tips we can spread the word of the wise, research new technologies, communicate with the world, and the best place to start the green implementation of our Ideas.
I know that we all have the ability to make the changes needed to meet the challenges ahead of us for our own survival and the good of the world. The problem we have is that we need more backing of the governments of the world. This whole wow I just found out and now believe we have a problem needs to stop, c'mon people we have known this for how long? I knew myself that things had changed years ago just seeing the weather changes and the seasonal changes that now happen at slightly different time than normal. Then you could say wow I wonder what could be causing this, but now you will seem rather silly if you don't know it by now, "HEY!!! WE HAVE A BIG PROBLEM!!!", now let's work together and fix it.
With the Internet we can look at satellite imagery, studies posted by scientist, and then compile all that info for others to search. I think the biggest thing the Internet can do is be the largest example of being green, set the ball rolling even faster with the complete conversion to alternative energy, virtualization, and this will bring onboard many people who would help and business that would want to be recognized for there part. Then this will filter through that company beyond the web and out into the streets and surrounding areas, and so on.
I don't feel that the Internet will be the biggest help in turning the world green, but it is the best place to start a massive influx of green changes that will eventually lead to the big green movement. Do your part today and save the world tomorrow.
The biggest thing I think that the Internet could help with is now most business can send workers home to do the work they did at the office. This would reduce the need for computers, printers, office spaces, heat for the larger office, lighting for the larger office, gas to fuel the cars they used to drive to work, and ect. the impact of people using the web to do work from home could be a major relief on resources and a big jump ahead in going green. Not mention the impact on family life for those individuals who are home now and not gone for 12 or more hours a day just work 8 hrs.Thanks for reading Bill
First of all I would like to thank everybody for all their great comments.
As James Johnson mentioned this posting is in 2 parts with more implementation details in the subsequent posting
But briefly the Internet can reduce carbon emisisons in 2 ways:
(a) in reduction of energy consumption of Internet routers and servers through energy efiiciency (which at best will be marginal) and collocating equipment with reenwable energy sources such as windmwills and solar farms (which will major re-architecting of networks and ICT servers
(b) trading of "bits and bandwidth for carbon" instead of current schemes to induce carbon reduction such as carbon taxes, cap and trade or carbon offsets
A good example of the later is our initiative to offer free fiber to the home in exchange for customers reducing their electrical and gas consumption.
For more deatils please see http://green-broadband.blogspot.com
"The wedding this Saturday of Google co-founder Larry Page on a tiny Caribbean island is a logistical nightmare for planners who are flying in 600 guests on private planes and trying to find deluxe hotel rooms for all the bigwigs."
It continues:
"A second source said that Page, who's estimated to be worth about $20 billion, is also springing for private planes to fly in guests from around the globe. "Planes are leaving from all over," said the insider. "One plane will leave from New York on Friday."
Keep in mind that Larry Page and Sergey Brin also bought their own jet (a big one; a 767-200) and had an embarassingly pathetic tiff over whether it should be outfitted with hammocks or beds (they were both wrong; the obvious choice for people like this is bunkbeds).
In the face of this kind of behaviour how can anyone seriously claim Google is part of the green revolution?
As an Internet community, we need to be at the forefront of the Global Warming debate. Not just following it, but shaping it.
Remember, there are two ways to be rich - make more (energy) or desire less.
Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Intel, AMD, and Dell are all looking to reduce power consumption. These companies should be applauded and endorsed.
Sure they are looking to lower their expenses but this is not some marketing scheme or Inconvenient Truth B.S., this is really happening.
Week after week, I get pitches from companies showing how they are cutting back on energy consumption as a proof of concept to see how far they can scale back. And even the financial houses with tons of data center investments are showing results.
I struggle with the contention that the Internet is a path to reducing global warming. The data centers, server farms, etc used to power Internet are huge energy consumers and until they are powered by solar or wind farms (and I know Google is working on something in this area), it just doesn't wash. And the Cisco reference? It feels like a pro-bono wrapper Cisco put on an initiative to sell more routers and associated networking gear, including their new telepresense program which Steve alluded to in his post. Maybe Cisco could create equipment that was less power intensive as a means to address this issue. That would have a huge impact on global warming!
In terms of global warming, the Internet can be a compelling communication tool but as a means to limit harmful emissions, I don't buy it.
On a side note: Can anyone site the last period of global warming and its impact on society??
Yeah, virtualization as an energy saver is tough. One of the first things I noticed when I came over to the greentech market is that people wanted to, above all else, get together, network, talk. Not online, but in person. Networking events are a daily occurance in Boston and San Francisco in the greentech market, and conferences are doing better than any other business right now. People really do want to connect in person, so thus far, greentech entrepreneurs are burning a lot of CO2 flying around to see each other and not adopting telepresence technologies at any greater pace than other industries.
And, as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have witnessed, the Internet consumes an amazing amount of electricity, at least half of which is generated by coal, which is an utter environmental disaster. One of Google's motivations for beginning to invest in renewable energy is to start owning their power generation rather than relying on polluting utilities, tho a secondary motivation is simply reducing their electricity bill, which purportedly is their highest cost of operations as a company.
The best thing about the internet for climate change is its ability to disseminate information globally, since this is a global challenge. But the Internet itself serving as a platform for new applications that can have a real impact on greenhouse gas emissions is something I wonder about.
The other aspect of virtualization discussed here, virtualizing servers and storage, is a good one, and the success of virtualizaiton companies like VMware shows the market is adopting it for reasonable financial drivers, rather than environmental concern. The challenge, however, is to get companies to actually realize the energy savings from virtualization, rather than simply use it as a means to continue to scale their data centers beyond their original plans. This effect has been at work in the auto industry for years, where most efficiency gains in engine performance tend to get realized not as gasoline savings, but higher performance. So a 300hp car today gets better gas mileage than its counterpart 40 years ago, but does not reduce the individual driver's gasoline consumption.
Anyway, that's it for now. I can dig up some stats to make the points clearer and more concrete.
Interesting anecdote re: Cisco's collaborative technologies and their role in fighting global warming.
Earlier this year I requested a briefing from Cisco on same. They insisted that I was briefed in one of their videoconferencing suites in Midtown (even though I just wanted to have a phone call).
Of course, I took a taxi to and from the meeting! Hack! cough! Splutter!
This article alludes to potential - alot. I would be interested in hearing more specific examples of how the internet can curb c02 emissions.
The Insultant's suggestions (below) for Avatar use vs. air travel are a great start.
Also, if you must fly - you can purchase points on British Airways (and a handful of other sites) to neutralize the c02 emitted from your flight. Not a perfect system but a step.
Although, internet devices cannot be held responsibles for the current climate tragedy of the world, I agree that Internet can be a good medium to spread environmental concerns. And the environmental policies of companies such as Cisco, are praiseworthy. All around the world many internet related companies are aware of the positive impact they can have in promoting "green awareness" in order to fight against global warming. In Europe, Veosearch:, a new search engine, offers to redistribute
50% of its ad revenues – generated by users’ searches – to agencies
promoting social and environmental development.
The Fight Against Global Warming should be everybody's fight and it's good that the web 2.0 offer the possibilite to have constructive discussions about the subject.
I sort of agree with Charles on this one, Bill. Not sure I get it either.
A few points, which I shall number just because I like numbers.
1. What would really be useful to working out how useful the Internet can be in reducing global warming is some quantitative data (also known as "facts") about what the potential carbon savings are from the various different approaches you list in your blog.
Example: "the promising new concept of "Internet virtualization," which may considerably reduce the power consumption of routers, switches, and computers."
Well, how much power does telecom hardware use? Alottle? Alittle? And how does that compare to things like, I dunnow, refrigerators? Trains? Planes? Automobiles?
My point (and I do have one) is that I don't know whether the potential savings are impactful or just a meaningful drop in the vast bucket of warmy stuff.
(I shall ask my friend Scott Clavenna at Greentech Media, which purports to know about this stuff, to pop in later and see if he can enlighten us further).
2. One area where I do think the Internet could have a huge impact is videoconferencing, or even using wanky concpets like avatars and second life to replace air travel. But it's still an open question whether people will actually use these technologies voluntarily instead of hopping a plane. My suggestion would be to mandate use of these virtual techs for business meetings. But the bunny huggers and libertarians get all miffy when you suggest things like that.
3. Re: "there is a potential to allow the Internet community to provide leadership in addressing global warming. This is a community that is used to rapid changes and includes many of the most innovative people in the business world."
Welllll, ok. But it's also important to keep in mind that these are also some of the most selfish, egotistical, and basically unpleasant people on the (rapidly warming) planet. What most Internet entrepreneurs do when they strike it rich is
Not much evidence of a planet saving mentality in these behaviors, is there?
4. Finally (you thought I'd never finish, I bet) one little considered solution to all of our global warming issues would be to adopt the approach posited in Logan's Run (the great book and one of the WORST FILMS EVER MADE). IE manage consumption of resources and maintain the planet's equilibrium by nixing anyone over the age of 30. For the record, I'm against this -- mainly because I'm already 41 and just coming into my own.
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I have long complained about the current generation of smart meters -- the new electronic devices that utilities are deploying in a number of trials around the world to replace the old analog electrical meters at the side of your house.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should go “back to school” to extend nationwide broadband in the U.S., working with the research and education (R&E) community on creative ways to roll out fiber-based Web services.
As the year begins, it’s interesting to look at technologies that may truly affect the future of the Internet. I’ve chosen three that may have major implications for network bandwidth and the applications that will drive that bandwidth.
A couple of studies -- issued years apart -- project that the Internet and information and communication technology (ICT) can have a bigger impact in reducing CO2 than either carbon taxes or cap-and-trade systems. The surprising element in each study is the degree to which the Internet and ICT might contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases.
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The Google backlash continues. After seeing their Project 10^100 submissions disappear into the bowels of a Google server farm, a group of irate developers has started their own site to re-collect and vote on the ideas.
Research shows that the youth of today like Facebook – but not blogging or Twitter. Does that mean Facebook has won, or just that it's not yet out of favor? Will all the services we see today fade into Ovaltine-or-Wheaties status in just a few years?
Ray Kurzweil's Blio and Apple's iPad tablet will make it easier than ever to have books "read" to us, says Dr. Kim, who believes that talking tablets will become interwoven into our consciousness as we "merge" with the increasingly elegant machines we hold in our hands.
Research shows that the youth of today like Facebook – but not blogging or Twitter. Does that mean Facebook has won, or just that it's not yet out of favor? Will all the services we see today fade into Ovaltine-or-Wheaties status in just a few years?
What kinds of companies are doing the most innovation in the data center? Turns out it's midtier enterprises that are taking the "Just Right" approach.
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