As its name suggests, ‘Eye On The Web’ focuses on the Internet and as I was thinking about this next instalment I couldn’t help thinking about how the web has improved our understanding of the world. On the other hand I pondered, does this come at an acceptable cost to our environment? Is there an ironic twist of fate just around the corner?

In today’s hi tech world we often think of the ways in which we can use technology to help the environment.  This is especially true in the GIS world where ESRI the largest vendor of GI software, often puts the environment at the top of their presentational agendas regarding the Geography Network and the “…Helping Better Manage Our World”

My old favourite Google

Google are probably the most talked about Internet business at present.  When they were starting out they took the original advertising model and turned it on its head by providing any business, regardless of size or niche, anywhere in the world with a place on the Internet to advertise (remember when the only advertising available was via large banners that you paid for on viewing not click through?).  On the technical side, and possibly unknown to many, they also changed the method serving content delivering amazing speed – I am still astonished how obscure items can be retrieved from their indexes at sub second speed.  During the dotcom boom, businesses bought large servers that required a huge investment to serve their information.  Google have built a network of servers (rumours indicate that there are between 175,000 and  250,000 servers) from standard machines, many of which are humdrum desk top PC’s.

What you may ask has all of this to do with the environment?  Glad you asked.

Impacts of a cyber world in the real world

As we are all no doubt aware, there have recently been concerns about the sustainability of much of our energy sources and the cost of oil and gas.  I am an advocate of the Internet and cannot imagine doing business without this medium.  During the time I have used the Internet I have never worried too much over the environmental impact of all the servers, switches, pc’s, mobile telephones and now WiFi access points.  But this is now beginning to raise its ugly head.  There are now serious concerns about the impact of all this hi tech wizardry that we now take for granted in our busy head down world.  Studies by a Google Engineer indicate that the cost of running servers in terms of electrical energy over three years will soon be MORE than the capital cost of purchase.  Many processor manufacturers (AMD, Intel, Sun) are all now delivering ‘Dual Core’ processors that can, if the marketing hype can be believed, half power consumption by having two sets of instructions (or simulated processors) running within the same computer chip.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this will cause some of them to review their licensing structures to capitalise on this!  Start-up companies are setting their sights on building systems to better regulate the air flows within server rooms to ensure that less and less cold air (read power) is required to keep the servers cool.

Is it really that bad?

The news isn’t all bad.  There are many unseen benefits and reductions in environmental costs and overheads.  I am sure that statistically there is far less paper wastage, from photocopies and discarded post in today’s offices than those of 20 or even 10 years ago.  I can remember when, in the early nineties, all paper memos suddenly had footers alerting us to the need for recycling.  An ex colleague of mine has a humorous footer to his emails “No electrons where harmed in the creation of this email although a few got excited”.

I feel confident that the technology that has provided us with a much better window on our world and our environment and will continue to improve, costing less to produce and less to run.  I just hope the product lifecycle can be extended or that we can learn to re-cycle our mother and daughter boards a little bit better than we do at present.