Practically everything, in its proper measure, is good. The same thing happens with new technologies.
With increasing speed, almost exponentially, technological advances are taking place that substantially improve our quality of life.
But we must not forget that the indiscriminate use of many of these means can damage seriously our ecosystem.
For all these reasons, today we want to share a very interesting article that we have located in EFEgreenand that we want to take advantage of to call for reflection and the efficient use of new technologies, thus reducing environmental pollution.
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To start, just one thing:
In the year 2020 each inhabitant of the planet will have an average of 6 technological devices. Which means that the planet will have up to 50,000 million connected devices.
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Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) offer many possibilities but harbor an ecological risk: “there is no real awareness of their environmental impact”, according to the program director of the Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y León, Jesús Díez.
The person in charge of the LIFE Green TIC project, Díez, has assured that although this matter “It’s not very common in the media.”“the pollution produced by new technologies is there and should be taken into account, but users do not usually pay attention to it”.
According to the forecasts of the Broadband Commission, the commission created in the EU for the management of broadband, in the year 2020 the planet will have up to 50,000 million connected devices.
“If no action is taken“, by that date all these connected technological instruments will generate a “enormous” world energy consumption, equivalent to the emission of about 22 million tons of carbon dioxide, what according to forecasts could account for up to 6% of total emissions of greenhouse gases.
The matter is much more serious than it might seem at first.
Therefore, the objective of the European program LIFE Green TIC, financed with €1,455,000, is to demonstrate the potential of these technologies as tools to reduce pollution, either by eliminating their carbon footprint through sustainable use, or by improving corporate social responsibility policies.
“We transfer an approach that wants to visualize the problems posed by climate change, the energy consumption of the sector, the polluting materials or dangerous components that are used…”, has detailed Diez.
ICT pollution comes from computers, smartphones, telecommunications networks, printers and data centers, among other devices.
According to some studies, electricity consumption associated with infrastructures and new technologies already accounts for 10% of the total in the European Union.
In addition, its environmental footprint originates “75% in its normal use and the remaining 25% in the manufacturing processes of these devices and networks”has specified.
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polluting materials
In the case of mobile phones, for example, a 98% of its ecological impact is caused by the LCD screen, made of liquid crystal, and its electronic circuits; To this we must add that its composition contains substances that are harmful to the environment such as arsenic, cadmium or lead, among others.
The LIFE Green ICT project includes a commitment to achieve a use “better and smarter of these devices and, for this reason, the Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y León is preparing a catalog of good practices that facilitate energy savings and make them more sustainable.
Among these recommended behaviors is the adoption of measures such as reducing the brightness of the devices, choosing wallpapers with dark tones, choosing to turn them off instead of using sleep mode or deactivating email and social network notifications…, in order to achieve a more sustainable use of computers and smartphones.
Perhaps it is time to bring to light and promote technological advances still in the experimentation phase that, until now, have gone unnoticed for reasons that we do not understand.
For example, in one of our articles that we published on 11/1/2012, we talked about plastic materials that generate energy for your own use.
This could be a good way to maintain the balance between technology and care for the planet, controlling environmental pollution as much as possible.
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Good practices for users
Diez also considers relevant “do not store electronic garbage and do continuous cleaning of equipment: both files and applications or the browsing log”.
Although he has observed that in recent years companies “strive to develop a ‘green’ strategy”, either with the ecological labeling of its products or with voluntary declarations in favor of sustainability. “No matter how much intention the user has, if the equipment is not designed in a ‘green ICT’ way, it generates frustration“.
As this expert has assured, there are still Wi-Fis that cannot be temporarily disconnected or smart TVs that remain in sleep mode without turning off completely.
With an expected average of six devices per world inhabitant by 2020, the intention of the LIFE Green ICT project is to promote companies in the sector when it comes to informing, raising awareness and promoting in users the most “green” aspect in the use of these technologies.
Origin: EFEverde
