RSSBush admin. official: IT back-offices 'centers of enormous waste'
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published November 27, 2007, 12:43 PM
Speaking at an official United Nations function in New York this morning on technology and climate change, a DOE official denounced the world's data centers for their role in contributing to global climate change.
UNITED NATIONS (BetaNews) - US Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency Alexander Karsner, speaking this morning before a United Nations conference on the technology industry's responsibility for the global environment, said that as the world's data centers become more clustered and crowded, they expend too much space and electricity and generate too much heat and emissions. As such, Sec. Karsner said, the typical enterprise data center has become "a center of enormous waste."
Leaders in the IT industry should step up their game, he stated, suggesting they "can transform beyond helping to solve problems" and rebuild their data and manufacturing facilities to become more climate-conscious. Such new centers, he said, could become "templates and models for others to follow."
Karsner is slated to represent President Bush next month at a two-week UN conference in Bali, Indonesia. There, the UN Framework on Climate Change will discuss, among other matters, models for energy-efficient manufacturing facilities. A new industry could develop in itself for renewing and rebuilding factories worldwide, and the US has an opportunity here to play a decisive role.
Toward that end, Sec. Karsner told the audience this morning that the US and China have ironed out their differences for a major bilateral agreement on biofuel production. Last week, he met with his Chinese counterpart, deputy chief of China's National Development and Reform Commission, Zhang Guobao. Though China has yet to make a formal announcement, Karsner's mission-accomplished proclamation signals the two countries may have come to terms on trade and co-development regarding the use of non-edible feedstocks, such as certain grades of corn, to produce biofuels.
But while in Bali, Karsner plans to make the case that not only should fuel itself become more efficient, but the devices that use fuel and electricity must be rapidly reformed for greater efficiency. Foremost among these on his list is the microchip, which he repeatedly singled out as a poor performer in general efficiency, due most likely to its heat emission.
Manufacturers and engineers, he advised, shouldn't wait for a meltdown or the approach of some technological barrier before acting to make design changes. "We shouldn't wait for a 'Big Bang,"' he told the UN. "Time is of the essence."
PUT DOWN THE CRACK PIPE! WTFAUTR!
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|They're huge energy wastes, no doubt about it. That's why so many people are trying to move to VMware and other virtualization technologies to more efficiently use the resources of bulky servers.
Mind you, my former boss at a small Ohio college spent $30,000 on a server that would only serve one purpose and would never utilize all its resources. So, really, it doesn't matter how energy efficient the products are if you have a moron running the IT department.
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|You are very correct sir.
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|"They're huge energy wastes, no doubt about it. That's why so many people are trying to move to VMware and other virtualization technologies"
I'm more inclined to believe they do it to cut hardware costs and that it has very little to do with energy or the environment.
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|Yeah, well, if you're talking about my IT department, you're absolutely right. :)
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|For years, all we heard was fear mongering about the imminent "Global Cooling".
Didn't happen.
Then we started up again, but his time it was "Global Warming".
Then they realized that increased CO2 int he atmosphere might actually cause cooling, so they had to change their tune yet again to "Global Climate Change".
Talk about your catch-all. It's like saying,
'We really have no clue what is happening, or even if anything at all is happening, but we want more of your money, and you're more willing to part with it if you're in panic mode, so...THE WEATHER IS CHANGING WE'RE KILLING POLAR BEARS!'
What BS. Which reminds me... Time to turn up the heat, it's getting close to 85 in here. Can't have that.
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|Of course it's BS. That doesn't mean, however, that we have the right to be inefficient with our power usage, given how expensive that power is.
I'm all for lower energy usage and still getting faster, better technology, but you're definitely right-- we could really do without the whole scare-tactics and "save the bears" mentality.
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|Have you thanked Al Gore today?
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|I thank Al Gore everyday for being such a great source of laughter in my life, because every time I hear his name I laugh for a half hour at how retarded he is.
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|Interesting idea, especially from the current US admin. But I find it hard to believe IT centers are a significant factor relative to other polluters.
Take for example the several year long assault and deliberate destruction of foreign environments such as Afghanistan and Irak. I am getting off track...
Just take the mind set of typical office workers in Manhattan where every single one is wasting several disposable compressed styrofoam coffee cups every day. I am also talking about most immigrants and can only extrapolate how it looks in their home countries (besides Europeans who seem to be more conscious of the impact). It is in fact an amazing achievement of civilization to clean out all the garbage every day.
Consumerism by far outweights environmental concerns. Just look at Hollywood_ who boasts having an xbox (or whatever) in every room ;-)
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|Hmm... an Xbox in every room eh? Lord knows those suckers generate obscene amounts of heat, lol. But isn't it always the Hollywood Leftists who always preach the global warming crap and yet want the extravagant lifestyle?
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|Speaking of garbage-- have you heard about the giant garbage island in the Pacific? A mound of accumulated human detritus larger than the state of Texas.
A lot of it plastic and styrofoam, killing lots of wildlife either when they get snared in it or ingest it.
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|Efficiency = Excellent idea...all for it.
Anthropologic climate change FUD = quick way to get in the news (junk science sells)
I prefer to look at the evidence myself: http://www.co2science.org
Some of the raw data takes some patient reading, but the answers are here if you look.
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