Is Mother Earth falling sick?
If you live on this planet, and have access to newspapers, you will probably have noticed about every week there is an article that is related to the planet. Was it a week, or was it daily.. hmm… Being a living thing on this planet really makes me feel that this planet is our home. Well, it is. It is about time that humans start thinking about taking care of Earth, just like we take care of our homes.
In recent disasters, for example, the Quake in Szechuan, China, the floods in many places and the typhoon that hit Myanmar, makes me think Earth is getting a little crazy now. Wonder if it is because we have upset Earth and it is making corrections. Just like if you’re sick, you see a doctor and recover.
In Singapore, we have the Saving Gaia campaign, driven by MediaCorp. I urge you to visit the site and rethink what you’re doing for Earth. In Singapore, plastic bags are a no-no on Wednesdays at all major supermarkets. This is a move to help us reduce the use of plastics bags.
Anyway, i think each and everyone of us can play a part. Lets do something for Earth.
Why do we need Green Computing?
You see, computers uses electricity to run. Electricity are generated using various methods. Most commonly, by burning fuels that turns turbines which generates electricity. Hmm, or at least i think it does. 😉
Because we burn fuels, carbon dioxide or what i heard commonly as green house gases are introduced into the atmosphere. This traps heat and in turns brings up the temperature of the globe, also known as Global Warming.
By reducing the amount of energy used to power your computers and equipment, in fact anything, not just computers, will help reduce the amount of electricity you use. This translates to you reducing your carbon footprint.
What can i do?
Everyone uses a computer, who ever uses a computer has the ability to reduce their carbon footprint. Remember, the whole objective is to reduce power consumption.
- Power off / hibernate your computer when not in use
- Configure Power Options. You can tell the computer (XP/Vista) to turn off things like monitor, hard disk, etc.. Read this -> Power Management in XP, Power Management in Vista
- When you are going for lunch, power off your monitor
These are some simple practices to help save some power.
Is that all you can do? NO. IT Pros !! You can do a lot more!!
In any computing environment (except the end user computers), the data center / server room is usually the most energy consuming one, but a lot more can be done to reduce power consumption. Watch this space. I am currently doing a consolidation project and i will share with you the experiences. Going Green in the Server Room can take many forms. In a separate blog entry, i will share you with more on what you can do in that Server Room.
All in the name of GOING GREEN and Saving energy !! 😉
/Dennis
Navigating the Technology Highway 