ICTs environmental impact is exploding – A call for action by professor Andrew A Chien, Editor-in-Chief, ACM
“It is time for the computing community to face up to computing’s growing environmental impact” – Andrew A Chien wrote in the Editorial of the ACM “Communications” publication earlier this year. ACM is the largest computer society in the world with a major impact on research, education, technical excellence and society. As far as I remember ACM never addressed the Green IT topic at this level.
Excerpts:
“Computing is the fastest-growing use of electric power in the developed world, and is driving the buildout of power generation and transmission in much of the developing world. If the world is to meet the Paris Accords goals for greenhouse-gas-emissions, computing must reduce its direct emissions.” (Green in IT)
Call to action to the computing community: “Let’s adopt goals equally ambitious to those of the climate community.”
Andrew Chien added a few references to support his statements. For example:
- How to stop data centers from gobbling up the world’s electricity: an analysis with clear documentation about the development of the world’s electricity consumption and the ICT part of it
- The UN Global E-Waste monitor: It demonstrates that only 20% of E-waste generated is collected and recycled
