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Building a Green (Mini-ITX) PC


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Creating all that energy for all of these newly manufactured devices creates waste. Green PCs are fine, but are not the impact maker. Pollution is the immediate threat the way I see it due to things like global warming coming to the forefront of world politics. The two can go hand in hand, because pollution is often created by power companies themselves. The best compromise between our two visions? Target the power companies and sources of energy. Renewable sources of energy are a good thing to work towards in all aspects of day to day life, not just computing. Nuclear energy and hydrogen fuel may be good solutions, I just hope we can test them and implement them properly before it's too late. I don't have to have future generations living on Mars.

 

Pollution and global warming... Not that sure about that, sincerely speaking. It is not proved that global warming is caused by pollution. I think that pollution is just speeding a bit what is a natural earth process: world's temperatures have deeply changed during centuries, in a continous oscillation. But I'm not enough informed about that, so it's just my personal opinion. To be clear: not saying "let's pollute" here =)

 

I agree with you: I don't think PCs are "the" impact maker. But it would be interesting to find data about it, maybe it's a wrong supposition.

By the way, so the question is: what is an impact maker? I'm tired about the green trend: it seems that citizens "have to" change their lifestyle. It should be a great thing, but: why do we have to "pay" for others' mistakes? Why do I have to change the way I live while the real high polluters and consumers (industries) continue indiscriminately their non sustainable politics? (in Italy we say "pigliarla al culo", which may be translated as "taking it in the ass") Again, I agree with your view: is primary to regulate companies/industries/etc politics.

In the end, regulating the way industries produce directly affects people lifestyle. For example the european directive EPBD (Energy Performance of Buildings Directive): changing the way we build is to change the way we live. And this is great, I think.

 

But if we're going to live on Mars, in the future, it will not be because of pollution, it will be because of sources exhaustion: you can live with pollution, you can't without energy (generally speaking, food included). Honestly, in that case, I don't think we'll even emigrate: we'll simply die (the problem persists: where do we find resources?). That's what earth is doing right now: consuming itself slowly dying.

 

I think that the point is: we can continue to run after the exponential energy requests (with exponential energy production which, nowadays, will anyway bring the earth to the overshoot) or we can re-think the way we consume that energy.

 

 

ps: nuclear energy is not considered a renewable source (in Europe, at least - sorry, the link is in italian)

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ps: nuclear energy is not considered a renewable source (in Europe, at least - sorry, the link is in italian)

To all the above, I suppose it's a matter of perception. Reform of sources of energy, politics and alternative materials for manufacturing are all good steps to take, but the people need to want it badly enough. I don't think enough people know what's at risk. Yes, we are running low on natural resources, and we don't want to run out, believe me. To try and create an atmosphere on mars along with plant life, water, etc will be a daunting task. But that's another story. As far as pollution being something we can live with, effects of that are all around us. People in cities full of it tend to live shorter life spans, like Bejing, China. Factory workers in China also tend to be exposed to harsh chemicals in the products they make for the rest of the world because of convenience and cost, not necessarily because it's the ethical material to use that's best for everyone.

I think one of the council members in the movie 'The Matrix Reloaded' said it best: "People don't care how it works so long as it works." People need to care more.

Regarding Italy, they got scared of the effects of a radiation disaster after Chernobyl in 1986 and made it a point to tear down all nuclear energy plants in their country and ban the technology for that specific use. To say their judgement may be clouded is an understatement. That being said, nuclear energy isn't something humans understand 100%, so it's not as though their caution is unwarranted.

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