By Jack Uldrich
Cross-posted from www.jumpthecurve.net
It has been widely reported that
the Internet can reduce greenhouse emissions by 1 billion tons over
the next decade as a result of companies such as EnerNoc and
Verdiem developing better methods to monitor and control
residential and business energy usage. This is undoubtedly true,
but people to begin thinking even more broadly about the Internet’s
ability to protect the environment.
Act Local
It’s a cliche to be sure, yet the old mantra about thinking
globally and acting local still rings true and the growing power of
social networks can greatly amplify this tendency.
For instance, as the father of two grade-schoolers, my wife and
I regularly cart our kids to their myriad of extra-curricular
activities. Not surprisingly, at every practice, an army of
SUV’s and minivans fill the parking lot.
Most vehicles chauffeured only one child and, more often than not,
many of these children either live in the same neighborhood or
attend the same school. Now, as much as I love my children and
would love to believe they are imbued with extraordinary talents,
it is not imperative that I – or any other parent – be attendance
at every practice.
My point is that there is no reason why my fellow parents and I
can’t better coordinate our activities and car-pool in the same way
that today’s free-wheeling, net-savvy teens use social networking
tools to plan their activities and share the burdens of daily life.
(Alternatively, if a parent feels that he or she just can’t bear to
miss a single karate chop, piano recital or soccer kick, perhaps
they could convince the sponsoring organization to stream the event
onto the web.) (cont.)
Act Global
Often lost in the discussion about the Internet’s ability to
protect the environment is a discussion about the power of the
open-source movement. A few weeks back, I read about
an innovative technology that might actually take carbon dioxide
out of the atmosphere. (Yes, I know that trees also already do
this but this technology might potentially to do it on a larger and
quicker timescale).
The technology is still in an early stage of development, but
this is where the Internet could help it along. There is a universe
of bright, intelligent people who are accessible via the Internet
and if given access to the right information might be able to build
upon it and facilitate the technology’s entry into the commercial
marketplace.
To opponents who question why anyone with such a potentially
valuable technology would share it, I would answer that the
Internet is already being successfully exploited by innovative
companies to do everything from search for new gold deposits to
develop new blockbuster drugs. There is no reason why this
technology or other new clean technologies can’t be developed in a
similar fashion.
Think Different
John Maynard Keynes once said that it is more efficient to “ship
recipes than biscuits.” His point was that shipping information and
knowledge – and not physical products – is the key to an efficient
economic system.
The farsighted economist was absolutely right and the Internet
provides society a grand opportunity to rethink this maxim anew –
and in an environmental context. Consider the case of Amazon’s new
electronic book-reader, Kindle. If we truly want to protect the
environment and reduce our impact on the environment, does it
really make sense to cut down trees to produce the paper for books;
use tons of coal-power electricity to manufacture the books; and
then transport those books across the country with gas-guzzling,
fossil fuel-powered trucks – all for the privilege of then storing
the books in rooms and libraries which must be heated?
How much better would it be to digitally transmit books to
electronic devices in a way that leaves only a fraction of the book
publishing industry’s carbon footprint?
This, however, is just the beginning. As advances in digital,
computer-aided-design are coupled with advances in rapid prototype
manufacturing (i.e. printing physical objects) and nanotechnology,
the list of future products which might also be shipped in the form
of information could grow exponentially.
What’s Really Need: A Change in a Behavior
These modest proposals only hint at the Internet’s potential to
enhance the environment. The one common element is that they all
also require a change in human behavior. And that, perhaps, is
where those of us interested in protecting the environment might
want to continue to leverage the Internet – to educate people on
how their current behaviors are adversely impacting the environment
and then convince them to act out their lives in new, different and
more sustainable ways.
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