Conservative estimates rank computer usage right up there with the airline industry for its harmful effect on the atmosphere, making it responsible for up to 2% of the total problem. To put your mind at ease, that doesn’t mean your household PC is all that nasty. That figure includes all the industrial server farms, government supercomputers, and college networks. Unfortunately, there are a lot more of them than you might think. Even your average grocery store has a server room somewhere in it to run the “back office” (accounts receivable and inventory control) and “front office” (cash registers and checkout system) components of its operation.

So how much damage does your average PC do? Running one 8 hours per day, five days a week, fifty weeks a year will use 400 kilowatt hours or 180,800 grams of carbon dioxide (452 grams – just shy of a pound – per hour X 2,000 hours). That sounds like a lot but when you consider that a home PC accounts for less than ten percent of the average home’s energy bill (according to MR. Electricty AKA Michael Bluejay of Michaelbluejay.com) it’s not that big of a number in the overall picture. Your water heater, furnace, and refrigerator are much bigger carbon offenders.

But as my mother always used to say “every little bit helps.” So here are some ways to go greener and keep your high-speed digital lifestyle to which you’ve become accustomed.

1.  Use the power management tools your PC manufacturer gave you!
   All modern PCs come with the ability to regulate their own power use. You can easily set your computer to enter a reduced consumption mode (sometimes called sleep or hibernation) and even power itself down completely if it remains idle for a certain length of time.
2. Unplug your machine.
   Even when it’s off, your PC uses about a Watt per hour. This is what’s known as phantom draw. The only way to cancel this out is to unplug the machine entirely.
3. Plan your day with the planet in mind.
   When you think about it, there’s really no reason to leave your PC on all the time while you’re in the other room, outside, or otherwise engaged. Also, consider doing everything you need to do once as starting up and shutting down your PC repeatedly consumes more energy than just letting it idle.
4. Avoid the next best thing.
   PCs seem to age quicker than Dorian Gray. If you buy one that’s top of the line in December and it’s outdated by July. However, resist the temptation to buy a whole new system. Manufacturing a PC is an extremely carbon intensive task. Not only that, PCs contain all sorts of toxic waste, heavy metals, and other harmful materials that we don’t need more of in landfills. When you need to upgrade, consider upgrading piecemeal, it will save you money and the environment a headache.
5. Shop smartly!
   A large number of PC manufacturers have begun to build earth friendly (or at least friendlier) computers in response to the consumer desire for products that are better for our planet. One of the first was Dell. Believe it or not, they have a whole line of Eco-Friendly computer Accessories, some of which are made with up to 70% recycled materials, contain fewer heavy metals and some, like this PC, whose cases are made out of sustainable bamboo!

Lastly, when it comes time to get rid of your old computer, think green. Does your computer still work? Could a local non-profit or school organization use your computer (or parts from your computer)? Do you have a charity-based resale shop in your area such as a Goodwill Industries retail store? Do you have anyone in your family (a young child or an older adult just learning the ropes of the computing world) that could use your old PC? Why not give your PC a second life?

One important note: when giving/selling any PC it’s best to thoroughly destroy all personal data on that computer. “Deleting” it isn’t enough. There are free software programs available that will completely overwrite any data on your hard drive, rendering your machine a blank slate, and safeguarding any potentially harmful information you wouldn’t want anyone to have. See Killdisk.com for one such example.

When your PC is broken and finally “useless” don’t just throw it away. Ecycle your old machine. Many manufacturers offer free recycling services for machines purchased through them. Your local recycling center may also have electronics recycling services available. Recently, Staples has announced that it will recycle unwanted electronics (though not TVs) for free at any of their retail outlets across the country. See Gcycle.org for more recycling options for all of your technological gadgetry!

Be smart about your used electronics, they’re not just trash.

Related articles

• Managing E-Waste: Battery and Computer Recycling (everydayhealth.com)
• Computing Your Karma: Recycling Your PC (chicagoist.com)
• Take It To The Computer Recycling Center (thinkoutsidethebin.com)

What they discovered is that many tests rely on urine to determine test results.  Since urine is acidity, scientists have developed a battery powered by the very urine it is testing.  An acid based battery has been around since you could buy kits to make batteries out of potatoes or lemon water.

“In order to address this problem, we have designed a disposable battery on a chip, which is activated by biofluids such as urine,” says Ki Bang Lee, one of the researchers responsible for the innovation.

Now we can talk about environmental benefits.  Urine is a renewable resource.  Just ask any pregnant woman.  Although slightly toxic, it’s no more so than vinegar.  Urine is virtually ubiquitous and the batteries are essentially biodegradable.

So how do they do it?  It always seems batteries are made by sandwiching different types of metal together in different ways and orders.  This is no exception.  The developers of the battery sandwiched paper soaked in copper chloride between layers of magnesium and copper.  The whole thing is then wrapped in plastic except for a small hole.  When urine is dropped onto the paper, it creates a chemical reaction (like all batteries) and produces electricity.

So how much juice are we talking about here? (no pun intended)  About 1.5 volts for 90 minutes.  That’s about the same as a AA battery.  Imagine this scenario: “Hey Joe, my phone is dying.  Let me give you a call back after I chug some coffee”.  Source

According to anyone who has tried, creating a new domain extension is quite the nightmare.  Typically, one needs a great deal of funding to complete the process.  And it doesn’t hurt to have a government sponsorship either.  Ever heard of .to?  It was started by an entrepreneur who convinced the island nation of Tonga to lend him their name.  They are compensated, and he is making millions.

The .eco movement is a little more egalitarian.  At least it seems so on the surface.  The group has been soliciting stakeholder input for months, and operates a very user friendly, transparent website.

Big Room, the organization behind the movement has promised to donate 25% of proceeds to environmental and social causes.  In addition, they promise to be the gatekeepers, only allowing companies that prove their eco-friendliness to purchase domain names.  However, they also pledge a user-involved model.  Their co-founder, Trevor Bowden says “We are not going to take the position that we can judge who is green, especially as standards are constantly changing. We will let the consumer decide.”

Critics of the new domain say ICANN is opening up a proverbial can of worms by allowing many new domains to take hold.  Some potentials include .nyc and .xxx.  The current policies of ICANN allow third party registrars (the companies that sell domain names to consumers) to sell trademarked domains at a profit.  As an example, Toyota.me sold recently for $90,000 to Toyota.

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Konarka has announced that their product’s efficiency has increased to 8.3 percent.  Although still small, this is a big boost.  Some day we’ll have technology that captures 100% of the sun’s energy by the time it reaches the earth’s surface.  For now, we’ll have to use 8.3% to power bus stops in San Francisco.

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The mobile wind turbine by Pope Design moves to follow the wind or to collect data.  It no longer takes a whole crew of workers and a crane to collect data over and over.

Another possible use is mobile wind generation.  Military applications are endless, as are heavily rural or undeveloped areas.  A mobile electrical plan is just what many communities need, especially those in transition.  Additionally, disaster areas are ripe for utilization of this new technology.

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Until researchers found one pretty big snag.  Growing the algae biofuel in the manner most thought to be scalable, (large, clear cylinders) has been found to have a carbon footprint 3.7x that of petro-diesel, the fuel it was intended to replace.

The study also found that when grown in ponds instead of turbo-sized test-tubes, the carbon footprint of algae biofuel drops to 4.5 x lower than petro-diesel.  However, this method consumes more water.  Not an issue in regions with an abundance.

Although the yield using ponds is lower than that of the test-tube method, it’s the carbon foootprint and cost effectiveness we’re worried about.  The algae fuel seems to be the perfect solution as it consumes carbon-dioxide and spits out a combustible fuel.  It could very well be the solution to our addiction to oil, global warming and a suffering economy rolled into one neat little technology.

Other scientists are experimenting with new test tube reactor designs that use a series of baffles to move water and algae around in a manner that achieves the circulation necessary while using much less energy.  This issue being that algae needs constant movement and exposure to sunlight in order to grow quickly.  This method, pioneered by Benjamin Taylor at the University of Cambridge uses 4% of the energy typically consumed by this method of production.

You can read the entire study here.

Piloted by Andre Borschberg, the flight plan included altitudes between 5,000 and 28,000 feet with a dawn landing.  The wingspan on this breakthrough innovation is 63 meters – rivaling the Airbus A340 and boats an array of solar cells numbering 12,000.

So why such a venture? The founder of the project, Bertrand Piccard, says the goal is to create a plane that can fly day and night on purely solar energy.  Does the name sound familiar?  Piccard piloted the first balloon to circumnavigate the globe in 1999.  Four years later, the challenge to fly around the globe was announced, a long term aim of the project.

Because the flight was successful, the team can begin work on the next phase of the project, to develop the plane further so that it may fly much longer distances, across continents or oceans.  If this phase is completed successfully, the team hopes to fly the Solar Impulse around the world in five stages in 2012.

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Wired’s Gadget Lab tested the device and came up with one piece of critical feedback.  The strap’s cables connect directly to the batter port, meaning you cannot have a battery in place as a backup.  This isn’t a challenge when in the sun.  However, when those clouds roll out, it’s time to switch to a more reliable power source.

As film has become virtually obsolete with the digital revolution, so soon, will batteries perhaps.

One of the chief concerns for both consumers and change-makers was that of range.  EV manufacturers are now toying with different solutions to the same problem: people don’t want to be limited by battery life or lack of charging stations.

A small startup is hoping to be one component of the answer.  They are testing a battery swapping station that will allow, in this stage of development, three taxi cabs to drive in and roll along a conveyor belt as if in a car wash.  In less than 60 seconds, this station will swap out a car’s battery.  That’s less time than it takes to fill your gas tank!

Via Inhabitat