Green computing is essential to protect , our children, our health, and our future. It can also save money.

Unfortunately, the technology we embraced with open arms does not agree with our human needs in important ways, and no one checked very carefully. Computing today is not "green". It's "black". See below for more on this.

Technology that agrees with and supports human needs (one of which is to preserve a healthy Earth so it can sustain us) is green technology.

Happily, the twin parts of the problem (he technology and our behavior in using it) can both be changed. Must be changed.

1. The "black computing" problem. 
2. Why the change is so important  
3. How did we get into this mess?
4. Why hasn't anybody already done something?
5. How could we get out of this mess?
6. A new definition of "green" computing.
7. Ways that our thinking needs to change for this to be successful.
8. Action steps we can take.

The "black computing" problem is having some terrible effects:

• Energy use of all those computers running on electricity and generating greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide is a real concern, but is only one part of a big picture.


• Intensely poisonous dissolved metals are moving into our local water supplies,
  
  
• Residues of toxic cleaning products (made necessary by the toxic materials in electronics) are also poisonous in our water, and are leaking throughout widely in the environment, causing fierce damage.
  
  
• These poisons, such as flame retardants, evaporate from computers into the air of offices and homes and accumulate in our bodies over time.
  
  The U.S EPA does not even require that most of these be tested for toxic effects, but children and adults are damaged.
  
  The effects of just these air-born poisons are to change human behavior, disrupt endocrine (hormone) function, irreparably damage reproductive systems and cause thyroid disease. The is likely more we just have not discovered yet. A small decrease in thyroid hormone levels can produce cognitive impairment in children, including lowered IQ. ADHD, hyperactivity, autism, and mental retardation all are possible linked to the poisons in computers.
  
  
• The garbage and waste we produce in disposing of computers and electronics is poisonous, is a huge danger, and going unrecogniized most of the time.
  
  
• A damaged ability to sleep well results from large amounts of looking at illuminated screens (i.e. as curently built in computer monitors, cell phones, video game units, televisions, etc.), especially within a few hours of bed time. How much exposure is needed seems to vary with the individual. Children seem sensitive to their patterns of sleep, still being formed through their teens, being disrupted later in life.
  
  
• Damage to the development of the nervous systems of children when they use illuminated screens only moderately. (This applies to children at least until age 12. Reference will be posted soon.)


• Cancer risk from this same exposure to illuminated screens described above.


• Radiation from computers and monitors is damaging to people and can be mitigated. In Europe, computer monitors cannot be built that exceed a certain amount of radiation. In the USA there is no government standard for monitors or related equipment.

Now extend green computing to the following areas that are not often mentioned.

1. The effects of taking resources out of the Earth that cannot be replaced. Our children may need some of these to be left for them.
   


2. Poisons left in ground, water, or air from the mining the toxic materials such as the metals and the petroleum used.


3. Damage to the Earth and to humans from mining, use, disposal, and manufacturing of all electronics.
   
   
4. Radiation, fumes and other by products of electronics,
    
5. The energy we use in mining, manufacture, use, and disposal.
   
   
6. And then add in the imbalances that result in global warming. Carbon. Energy. Deforestation to create farms to feed booming population and to expand cities and build homes. Black computing has a big piece here.
   

What is green computing?

Green computing requires that we compute in a way that preserves our health, the ability of unborn children to be healthy, and the Earth to be healthy as it flourishes and supports us.

Here is the conventional defination of green computing.

But "responsible use" goes far. Otherwise you look only at the surface. These days everybody wants to claim to be green, but there is no measuring stick. Is it green if your laundry soap or computer damages the environment 5% less, but people still die or grow sick from the environmental damage?

Our new definition of "green and green computing":

We suggest that to be green, an action must support humanity and Mother Earth to thrive.  

We suggest using  "zero destruction" as a standard.  If something further destroys the resources of the Earth that our children may need to survive and thrive, it should not be called "green".

What would a "Zero Destruction" approach mean?

This means that we only use technology, or any element of lifestyle, if we can do so in a way that does not destroy our ability to live on this planet in health and prosperity.

You could not call a computer "green" if it will just uses a little less enegy, but still releases poisons into the water supply when it is thrown away. This iind of thing is done all the time and just confuses the public.
 
This probably means that we will need to modify our lifestyle and develop some different technologies in order to use the Earth wisely. The line in the sand must be that  we do not proceed if it will poison or damage the lives of our children.

What would green computing look like?

It would probably look like computing today.

It would include:

• Virtualization (Useful for larger companies.) -
  to reduce the number of servers and other computers needed to run computing systems.


• Better power management (Useful for everyone.)
  This means using less energy to power computers and electronic devices.


• Materials recycling (Useful for everyone.)
  To re-capture hazardous and valuable materials from e-waste (electrronics ready to be trashed or disposed).


• Materials replacement (Useful for everyone.)
  Reducing and eliminatingEarth- poisonous and human-poisonous elements from computers, and preventing the ones that are left from escaping.


• Social engineering
  Computing can enable us to reduce the damage our livestyles do to the planet. Like telecomuting instead of using automobiles. Like having a good lifestyle without the booming population that magnifies to critical points so many environmental problems.
  
  But Earth, like any system, can only sustain a certain amount of damage before collapse. We need to be thinking about ZERO damage computing styles and life styles.
  
  Social engineering for a greener lifestyle may be the biggest impact that computing someday gives us. We will need to make the changes in ways that surprise us and may be inconvenient.

Compuiters are right now part of the problem, but can be part of the solution. Computers have become an essential part of modern life, and magnify the ability of humankind to do good things. We need them now, and need them to solve the challenges that face us.

When technology used less dangerous substances and when the Earth's population was much smaller, these stresses were not so critical. That time is gone. Eco green living becomes much more important when we need to accomodate billions of people on the Earth. (Scientist and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke suggested that 1 billion humans was about the maximum for planet Earth.)

For a high quality and believable business-oriented book on green computing, check out Green Computing and Green IT Best Practices.

The problem requires a much more complete solution.

Recycling helps reduce the damage, but doesn't solve the problem.

Businesses discovering bit efficiency paybacks from some green computing actions helps allow us to have more people and business activity at the same level of damage to teh ecosystem. It does not solve the problem - it only slows it down.

The change we need to make is a change in lifestyle and social boundaries. We must decide if we are willing to continue to degrade the Earth's ability to keep us healthy and thriving. How close are we ready to live to the shadowy line between a barely surviving ecosystem and the collapse that could mean mass disasters and collapse of governments?

Why do our social boundaries
to protect the Earth continue
to be so poor ?

Unfortunately, our government is very slow to define new boundaries in this area. There is also steady pressure on our legislators and on the media from businesses, and businesses tend to look at things in the short term, not the long term, such as when our children will be growning up.

Some people in businesses have great motivation to deny the problem, and believe they should use the business' money to influence the rest of us to accept what they want. They get laws passed. Some of these laws are unwise and bad for us.

Jeremy Leggett is a famous consultant to corporations on energy, business planning, and global warming. He describes consulting to high level Exxon executives in the face of the risky future of being just an oil company in an age that must become more green. He encouraged them to make a 10 year plan to become a company of renewable energy, so that as the oil economy falters, Exxon could continue as a dominant corporation. A board member laughed and said  that although they claim they work with a 5 year plan, they struggle to even have a usable plan for one year. Business in general is not good at planning for change, he said.  To plan 10 years in advance was not possible.  

Yet, in our current system of government, business, and media, the power of large businesses is enormous, and pushes us toward decisions, but the push they give is often ignorant. Since it is so poor at planning for change, businesses ignore long term consequences in favor of short term profits. (See the book Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era, by Jeremy Leggitt).

So we  rushed into the computing age without even asking about some of the long term effects. Now science is letting us know what we have to do. The science is not doubtful. We must make changes.

Isn't this going to be expensive?  

In our world of modern conveniences, it is easy to forget one immutable truth: we live within nature's boundaries. The natural world is not just that pretty thing we admire while on vacation. Natural resources are the assets on the planetary balance sheet. We need to it to be healthy for us to thrive and to survive.

Mats Lederson, a veteran executive at McDonalds, comments in the marvelous book Green to Gold - How Smart Companies use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage "In a prosperous society, you really have only two assets: people - their creativity and skils - and the ecosystem around them. Both need to be carefully tended.

This will probably mean more of the lifestyle changes that have already begin, but the longer we wait, the harder these changes will be. 

What do we do now?

• Make computers greener, so they do not poison us or our world in their manufacture, use, or disposal. 
  
  
• Make the energy they run on greener, so that providing the energy does not poison things (like coal and fossil fuels do), or cause other damage. 
  
  
• Investing in finding newer, greener technologies.
  
  
• Adapt our lifestyles so that we do not ask more of the Earth than she can deliver.