The Green Cyber World
The world of human revolves around technology today. Living without computers or mobiles seem to be impossible. But, do you know that like famous environmental killers for e.g., plastic or pesticides the cyber world is also contributing to harm our environment. Though computers and technology have made our lives comfortable we must not let it deteriorate our planet’s health. Otherwise, though everything may appear fine, in reality, we are threatening our future and the lives of the next generation. To be aware of the fact that cyber world also needs to be environment-friendly, there is a term that everyone must know and that is Green Technology.
The meaning of Green Technology
If anything is called green, it means that it is helping the planet to stay green. Green things help in sustainable development and keep our environment healthy. Therefore, Green Technology, as you must be thinking, simply means the technology that is environmental-friendly. It also means the use of science and technology that is helping to mitigate or even reverse the negative human impact on the environment. The other popular names of Green Technology are clean technology and environmental technology.
How computers are polluting the environment?
It may be surprising to know that even computers add to environmental problems. They are a cause of electric strain, energy waste, landfill waste, etc. Computer production generates a huge amount of chemical and industrial waste. Also, massive amounts of old computers and equipment are discarded every year. The old computers that are thrown away and dumped into landfills and harm the soil and underground water as they consist of heavy metal and toxic chemicals. Moreover, computers operate on electricity. Thus, there is a significant amount of electric energy needed to supply to servers and computers to keep running. This energy requirement becomes a cause of greenhouse gas and adds to the problems of climate change.
Take responsibility! Become proud green Cyber Citizens!
In general, we all know about going green. It’s a common topic often taught at schools like why is it important to protect our environment? Why we should only use environment-friendly products? Why plastics are banned and why jute bags are encouraged? Why we should save water and turn-off lights when not in use? We all are taught about how to save our planet and often know it through media that it is our duty to do so.
But all this awareness is of no use if not applied. Until and Unless, we as an individual don’t convince ourselves or bother to realize how urgent it has become to protect our environment, nothing will happen.
Government, nation leaders or business tycoons are often held responsible and asked to conserve our planet. They are expected to take responsibility to prevent humans from destroying nature and enforce the concept of environmental sustainability. Though those are the people in power and authority, a real impact and revolution can never be created unless the commoners take their own individual responsibility. There is no use for governments to put a ban on plastics if its citizens are not abiding by the rule. There is no use of environmental protection programmes by big corporations if its participants are not valuing its worth.
Everything starts with individuals. Change happens on an individual level whose impact is seen on a mass level.
Therefore, if everyone starts taking their individual responsibility to save the planet then the biggest problem ends right there. We must not expect others to be empathetic towards the environment if we ourselves are not ready to do so. Moreover, the rate at which humans are bringing harm to the planet is rapid but not realized. Thus, we must neither waste time nor make excuses and start inculcating the values to contribute to keeping the planet healthy.
The simplest contribution we can make towards our planet is by becoming green cyber citizens. You have to make sure that you use technology in such a way that it is not harming the environment as well as not creating any type of pollution.
Make your contribution with these small steps
It is very easy to ensure that technology is green and clean. If you are willing, you can significantly contribute to making this planet become green and healthy again. Especially, if you want to stop this cyber world from harming our environment please keep the following points in mind.
1)Use ENERGY STAR qualified computers and gadgets
ENERGY STAR is an initiative by the U.S. Environmental protection agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Under this program, the Energy Star service mark is given to energy-efficient products. The benefit of using ENERGY STAR computers is that they consume 25% less energy than standard computers. It is estimated that, in the US, if all computers qualify for ENERGY STAR label then the reduction in greenhouse gas emission will be same as achieved by the absence of 3 million cars from the roads. So, make sure that you use ENERGY STAR qualified products only.
2)Use devices that are EPEAT certified.
In the IT sector, EPEAT is a global eco-label given to environmental-friendly digital products. The EPEAT registered electronic products provide environmental benefits during their lifetime. These products can reduce greenhouse gas by 184 million metric tons as compared to products which are not EPEAT certified. The advantage of EPEAT is that they help the buyers compare products based on their environmental attributes.
3)Turn off PC or gadgets when not in use.
Most of our day revolves around gadgets, but even when we take breaks from these gadgets, we just put them to sleep and do not turn it off. Especially, at night, people tend to forget to turn off their laptops and PC before going to bed and just put their devices on sleep mode. Sleep-mode means low-power state and not the no-power state. Therefore, to save energy you must turn off your PC’s during long hours of inactivity.
4)Close applications that are idle.
If an application is not in use, then close it. This simple task can boost your computer’s performance and also save power. Theoretically, it is true that if there are fewer programs and services running in the background then your computer will show better performance and speed.
5)Prefer laptops and not desktops
Laptops require less power consumption than desktops. The smaller the hardware, the lesser the energy is required. Laptops require 20–50 watts whereas desktops require 60–200 watts. So, if you want to save your electricity bill or want to save the planet by saving energy, prefer to buy laptops.
6)Buy LCD Monitors or LED displays
LED and LCD is designed to be more environment-friendly and consume less power than traditional CRT monitors. LED are recyclable and mercury-free. LCD monitors and LED displays also have a longer life span as compared to CRT monitors.
7)Recycle old electronic equipment
Recycling is an important step that always comes if you are on a save-planet mission. Reduce-Reuse-Recycle is the mantra. Therefore, if you have old gadgets, devices or any electronic equipment make sure you are not throwing them just anywhere but properly recycling.
8)Use of power management tools
Power management tools come in-built in computers that helps efficiently manage power consumption by computer hardware. We must take full advantage of the power management feature and it includes turning-off screen savers and using appropriate power schemes that can save you electricity and money both.
9)Virtualization and Cloud Computing are environmental-friendly
Less is becoming more. Recent trends in technology that include cloud computing and virtualization practices are allowing several users to get their work done from a single server. This allows in the reduction of server requirement without compromising the quality of work done. The benefit is that though main hardware and server are present at data centres, the user can still avail all its features remotely.
10)Unplug Devices
Today everyone’s houses are packed with digital devices. These devices usually require electricity to operate so we have the habit of keeping them plugged even when not required. But if you just bother yourself a few second and unplug your laptops or other devices when not required you can save up to $100 to $200 per year. These devices seem to only consume a small amount of electric energy but statistics suggest that these energy vampires contribute significantly to your monthly electric bills. So, do yourself a favour to unplug these devices when not required.
If you follow all the above 10 steps, you can make a significant contribution as a computer-user and help your planet stay healthy. For our planet which gives us so much, in return, we must also show our care and prevent from causing environmental damage.
Cheers to being green cyber citizens!
Stay healthy and keep the planet healthy! :)
