is the internet cool, or watt?

Ask.com estimates that the five leading web search companies have enough servers to require 5 gigawatts of electricity annually <b>just to keep the systems cool</b>. (That includes losses through inefficiencies in electrical transmission over the grid, transformers, etc.) Add to this the power needed to run the machines themselves and you have a key factor in where these guys locate their huge data centres: where power is cheap. Maybe they should consider alternative cooling systems, like Toronto's deep lake water cooling system.

[reported in Wired, October 2006, in an article by George Gilder, publisher of the Gilder Technology Report]

poor in GDP, rich in carbon

One of the sub-saharan developing countries (and growing rapidly):

In 2003, Botswana was ranked 113 with a carbon dioxide emission rate of 2.3 metric tons per person. The only African countries with higher figures were Libya, South Africa, the Seychelles, Algeria and Mauritius. Botswana's relatively high per capita emission rate can be blamed partly on the small population but also on the fact that most of the country's electricity comes from coal.

[As reported in Mmegi Online.]

In 2003 the country's GDP was US$7.4 billion, and per capital GDP was US$4,346. Uninterrupted growth averaged over 9% during the three decades following independence in 1966. Population in 2003 was 1.7 million. [US International Trade Commission Publication 3785, October 2005]

buildings in context

The original LEED program (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rates single buildings for sustainability, but pretty much ignores a building's context. Now LEED for Neighborhood Development, or LEED-ND, "will place the emphasis on the elements that bring the buildings together into a neighborhood, and relate the neighborhood to its larger region and landscape."

[Grist on 12 October 2006: 'Hood Intentions]

educational footprints

Educational colleges are starting to calculate and mitigate their emissions footprints. The College of the Atlantic in Maine, USA, claims to be setting an example.

[reported in Washington Post on 10 OCtober 2006: Maine College Makes Green Pledge]

greening the battlefields

I always thought war is a bad thing, no matter how it's fought. But get this: apparently the battle can be eco-friendly with low-lead bullets, low-tox rockets and self-composting explosives. Somebody tell me this is a joke.

[reported in Sydney Morning Herald on 4 October 2006: in the battle to be green, the human factor can work wonders]