Sustainability and Computing & Computing and Sustainability

Sustainability and Computing &Computing and Sustainability Khurshid Ahmad, Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science Trinity College, Dublin-2, IRELAND October 29th , 2009. 1 https://www.cs.tcd.ie/Khurshid.Ahmad/Teaching/Teaching.html

Sustainability and Computing You all must have heard about environmental campaigns – waste less, conserve more; the resources of this planet are finite; sustainable solutions are reuqired everywhere; and, you must have heard of green energy, green movement, and perhaps you would like to add another new terms to your vocabulary: green computing and e-waste. What could this possibly mean: well, the use of computers is critical to our well being, enjoyment, and communications. However, computers consume energy and are made up of some of the very rare elements, a few toxins. http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/

Sustainability and Computing But what do people do when they talk about sustainability? They talk about our physical environment which does not usually include the ITC infrastructure http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/

Sustainability and Computing But what do people do when they talk about sustainability? They talk about our physical environment which does not usually include the ITC infrastructure. However there are exceptions – including new initiatives from China where the IT infrastructure is considered on a par with the physical environment http://www.efchina.org/FProgram.do?act=list&type=Programs&subType=8

Sustainability and Computing The project theme for this year is How Engineers can ImproveHealth and Well Being. The key to this improvement is that a city which is sustainable – sustainable in a way in which it provides a good standard of living for its citizens without harming the external environment. The external environment is everything else: other people, the physical environment, ..... http://www.efchina.org/FProgram.do?act=list&type=Programs&subType=8

Sustainability and Computing In the next few slides, I will outline the scope of these lectures by defining some key terms like sustainable cities, green computing, e-waste, planning and visualisation.

Sustainability and Computing These definitions will help you in seeing how computers can help with sustainability and how computers can pose threat to the sustainability which they are deployed to preserve.

Sustainability and Computing sustainable cityn.Town Planning and Ecol. a city designed or landscaped in such a way as to ensure the continued conservation of natural resources and the surrounding natural environment while providing the economic base needed to support its inhabitants. sustainable developmentn. (a) Econ. economic development which can be sustained in the long term; (b) Ecol. utilization and development of natural resources in ways which are compatible with the maintenance of these resources, and with the conservation of the environment, for future generations. http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50243648/50243648se1?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=sustainability&first=1&max_to_show=10&hilite=50243648se1

Sustainability and Computing COMPUTING: The action or an instance of calculating or counting COMPUTING: The action or practice of using computers, esp. as a professional or expert; the activity or operation of an electronic computer computing powern. the ability to undertake or be used for computation; computing resources; spec. the ability of a computer to perform work, often considered in terms of the number of instructions that can be carried out in a given time, or with reference to the amount of random access memory present. http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50243648/50243648se1?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=sustainability&first=1&max_to_show=10&hilite=50243648se1

Computing? You are never far away from a computer system/programs

Computing and Sustainability The upside of the story is this: we can plan and visualise a sustainable city using powerful computers which will recoup all the expenditure of energy, water and material resources many times over! Computers can be used to provide information for us to change our behaviour – upto date information provided when-we-want it, with all the multi-media garnishing of images and sounds. The key to a sustainable city is the ability for all the shareholders to exchange information about their environment in time and at the right place. http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/

Sustainability and Computing I have five lectures and I will focus on the role of Information and Communication Technologies in planning and sustaining a sustainable city. MY emphasis will be on the problems solved and problems created by the use of computing power. I hope you will listen to what I have to say and a number of you will have to do a project on the role of computing power in a sustainable city. By the fifth lecture, I hope my role and your role will be more clearer than it is now. http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50243648/50243648se1?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=sustainability&first=1&max_to_show=10&hilite=50243648se1

Alan Turing and his Legacy ALAN MATHISON TURING(born London, 23 June 1912, died Manchester, 7 June 1954) Mathematician, cryptanalyst, pioneering theoretical computer scientist and first of the computer professionals, amongst the founders of computational biology. And an amateur athlete (Walton Athletic Club, Surrey). All in a brief life of 41 years, 11 months and approximately 15 days. www.turing.net

2100 2100 2100 2100 2100 2100 2100 2100 2100 Computing Today PERFORMANCE + Q o S Administrative Barriers • Individual • Group • Department • Campus • State • National • Globe • Inter Planet • Universe Personal Device SMPs or SuperComputers Global Grid Local Cluster Enterprise Cluster/Grid Source: www.gridbus.org

Computing Today Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) help in processing information that has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities. In the course of ordinary activities, someone "using" ubiquitous computing engages many computational devices and systems simultaneously, and may not necessarily even be aware that they are doing so. The everyday objects and activities all have an impact on questions of sustenance, pleasure and sustainability Source: www.gridbus.org

Computing Today Context-aware computing refers to a general class of mobile systems that can sense their physical environment, i.e., their context of use, and adapt their behavior accordingly. Such systems are a component of a ubiquitous computing or pervasive computing environment. Three important aspects of context are: (1) where you are; (2) who you are with; and (3) what resources are nearby. Source: www.gridbus.org

Sustainability and Computing Since you only believe in things which exist on the YouTube, here is the evidence provided by the Climate Savers Computing Initiative on the address below http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uophCzammQ4

Computing and Sustainability Sustainability is dependent upon the ability of the stakeholders to operate without fear of undue interference. So in the olden days, cities were protected by forts and walls, now we have cyber security. If the service providers are ‘attacked’ successfully in one form or another then the ‘services’ are ‘disrupted’ – we have ‘denial of service’ through viral attacks, worm onslaughts and so forth. A sustainable city has to be secure from cyber attacks. http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/

Computing and Sustainability • A sustainable city can use computing power to defend itself from natural and human-made calamities. • But computing power can be used unleash calamities as well. A sustainable city will have to have its city-wide firewall; its guardian worms burrowing deeply into a potential ‘enemy’s territory. • This will be in contrast to today’s piece meal effort towards computer security

Sustainability and Computing The key to sustainability is the efficient use of resources and the safe disposal of obsolescent material – a kind of end of life (EoL) planning. So a sustainable city will need lots of TLC and much can be provided by a well-thought out EoL. In 2005, used or unwanted electronics amounted to approximately 1.9 to 2.2 million tons. Of that, about 1.5 to 1.8 million tons were primarily disposed in landfills, and only 345,000 to 379,000 tons were recycled. http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/

Sustainability and Computing Planning a sustainable city requires the input from and an output to a number of different stakeholders: the factory owner, the nearby residents, people seeking employment, health and social welfare data. Then there are geographical information systems, Google watch, and traffic monitoring systems Each data set is in a SILO – guarded by one stakeholder (holder), stored according to their needs and accessible usually only by them. The data is multi-dimensional and multi-faceted and it has to be VISUALISED so one can see what is going on. Does the City of Dublin has facilities for this multi-dimensional view? http://www.infra.kth.se/GIS/research/projects/ViSuCity/index.php

Sustainability and Computing Sustainable city is well nigh impossible without (massive) computing power; (Massive) computing power requires precious resources from the city and is always hungry for energy and thirsty for water; Computing controls pollution and conserves waste but the production and operation of computers creates pollution and waste; What are the plans for the City of Dublin to maintain the balance between the effective use of computing power in pursuit of a SUSTAINABLE DUBLIN? http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50243648/50243648se1?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=sustainability&first=1&max_to_show=10&hilite=50243648se1

Sustainability and Computing A United Nations University study into the environmental impact of personal computers, [..], has found that around 1.8 tons of raw material are required to manufacture the average desktop PC and monitor and that extending a machine's operational life through re-use holds a much greater potential for energy saving than recycling. http://www.infoworld.com/t/hardware/un-study-think-upgrade-buying-new-pc-601

Sustainability and Computing According to the UN University study, the manufacturing of one desktop computer and 17-inch CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor requires at least 240 kgs. of fossil fuels, 22 kgs. of chemicals and 1,500 kgs. of water. In terms of weight, the total amount of materials used is about equal to that of a mid-size car. http://www.infoworld.com/t/hardware/un-study-think-upgrade-buying-new-pc-601

Sustainability and Computing A United Nations University study into the environmental impact of personal computers, [..], has found that around 1.8 tons of raw material are required to manufacture the average desktop PC and monitor and that extending a machine's operational life through re-use holds a much greater potential for energy saving than recycling. According to the study, the manufacturing of one desktop computer and 17-inch CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor requires at least 240 kilograms of fossil fuels, 22 kilograms of chemicals and 1,500 kilograms of water. In terms of weight, the total amount of materials used is about equal to that of a mid-size car. What are the End-of-life plans of the City of Dublin, and indeed Trinity College, Dublin, for disposing off their computer equipment http://www.infoworld.com/t/hardware/un-study-think-upgrade-buying-new-pc-601

Sustainability and Computing So when you start a search for a film, on the Internet, you would like to see with your friends today – this simple act will increase your carbon footprint by 1 kilo-joule. You txt your friend that you have found a film, and this will require a few litres of fresh water to be cool the servers used by your mobile phone company; And the shiny new laptop you have been given as a present when you joined Trinity by the Bank of Mum & Dad, was made by processing tonnes of materials and that involved giga joules of energy and mega litres of water! http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/

Sustainability and Computing http://www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/

Sustainability and Computing The joule (symbol J), named for James Prescott Joule, is the derived unit of energy in the International System of Units. It is the energy exerted by a force of one Newton acting to move an object through a distance of one metre. 1 kilowatt hour = 3.6×106 J (or 3.6 MJ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule

Sustainability and Computing • One joule in everyday life is approximately: • the energy required to lift a small apple one meter straight up. • the energy released when that same apple falls one meter to the ground. • the energy released as heat by a person at rest, every hundredth of a second. • the energy required to heat one gram of dry, cool air by 1 degree Celsius. • one hundredth of the energy received by drinking a drop of beer. • the kinetic energy of an adult moving at a speed of about a hand-span every second. • the kinetic energy of a tennis ball moving at 23 km/h (14 mph). http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/learn/saving-energy-at-home/

Sustainability and Computing • One nanojoule is about 1/160th of the kinetic energy of a flying mosquito.[3] • The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is expected to produce collisions on the order of 1 microjoule (7 Tev) per particle. • One kilojoule is about the amount of solar radiation received by one square metre of the Earth in one second. • The kinetic energy of a one tonne vehicle moving at 160 km/h is one mega joule. • The gigajoule (GJ) is equal to one billion joules. 6 gigajoules is about the amount of chemical energy in a standard barrel of oil. • About 60 terajoules were released by the bomb that exploded over Hiroshima. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule

Sustainability and Computing Using power management features on your computer can save more than 600 KWh of electricity and more than $60 a year in energy costs. That equates to nearly half a ton of CO2 – more than lowering your home thermostat by two degrees Fahrenheit in the winter or replacing six standard light bulbs with compact fluorescents. http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/learn/saving-energy-at-home/

Sustainability and Computing Eco-friendly computingA typical PC takes 110 watts to run, and there are almost a billion of them on the planet. And according to the Silicon Valley Toxics Commission, e-waste is the fastest growing part of the waste stream. http://ncomputing.com/GreenComputing/Greencomputing.aspx

Sustainability and Computing The limits to growthToday's PCs are so powerful that we no longer need one for each person. We can tap into the excess power in one PC and share it with many users. Some of the newer systems uses just 1 to 5 watts, lasts for a decade, and generates just a few ounces of e-waste. http://ncomputing.com/GreenComputing/Greencomputing.aspx

Sustainability and Computing The Internet keeps growing and growing and growing http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Sustainability and Computing Some 8 Billion KGs of computing products have been produced since 1980. Only recently between 15-20% of the products are recycled/reused: of the 550 million or so desktops sold between 1980-2007, only 206 M are still in use, 66 M have been put in storage, and 278 have been ‘collected’ for End-of-Life (EoL) management. Optimistic estimates suggest that about half of the 278M in EoL, more than ½ will be treated as solid waste and perhaps other ½ will be recycled – c. 140 M units. http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/

Sustainability and Computing The building and rebuilding of our cities in "smart" sustainable form […] is an essential task, and a massive one that has the potential to generate a long-term economic boom. As with the Internet, the revolution will not result from a single technology, but from the timely convergence of multiple streams of technological development. William Mitchell (2008), Professor of Architecture and Media Arts http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/hope-mitchell-0521.html

Sustainability and Computing One part of it will be the replacement of the clunky, inefficient, dangerous gasoline-powered automobile with personal mobility systems based upon fleets of lightweight, "smart," wirelessly networked electric vehicles. A second part will be the emergence of clean, efficient, geographically distributed systems for electricity generation, storage and distribution. A third part will be the embedding of networking capability and intelligence in buildings and products of all kinds. And finally, ubiquitous networking will--like a nervous system--tie all this together so that cities respond, like intelligent organisms, to dynamic changes in their environments and the needs of their inhabitants. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/hope-mitchell-0521.html

Sustainability and Computing Environmental sustainability involves efforts such as monitoring the state of the physical world; managing the direct and indirect impacts of large-scale human enterprises such as agriculture, transport, and manufacturing; and informing individuals’ personal choices in consumption and behavior. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.elib.tcd.ie/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4736473&isnumber=4736465

Sustainability and Computing The computer and telecommunication companies are worried about the environmental impact of their technology and here are key US players giving their views on air to the US-based National Broadcasting Corporation - NBC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJD2Fko3TeU&feature=PlayList&p=0A30234EEDD68809&index=0&playnext=1

Sustainability and Computing And the energy prices are not what they used to be!! So how many rooms there are in Trinity College that have their screen savers ON all day and all night, spending kilo-joule here and kilo-joule there almost every minute of the day. The work in these rooms perhaps will save the planet eventually, but we should switch when we switch off! SEI Report on Understanding Electricity & Gas Prices in Ireland 2008 REPORT/

Sustainability and Computing And the energy prices are not what they used to be!! SEI Report on Understanding Electricity & Gas Prices in Ireland 2008 REPORT/

Sustainability and Computing And the energy prices are not what they used to be!! According to the EU Statistical Office the price of energy paid by household consumers was €14 per 100 kilo-watt hour . However, the price of energy paid by EU’s industrial consumers is on average was € per 100 kilo-watt hour Eurostat (2008), Electricity Prices for second semester 2007, http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KSQA-08-023/EN/KS-QA-08-023-EN.PDF

Sustainability and ComputingThe Irish Electricity Consumption and Prices • Electricity prices to industrial and commercial customers in Ireland [for 2007] were above average - ranging from 3% to 52% above the EU average electricity prices. • The higher electricity prices in Ireland are due in part to the high proportion of electricity generated by gas and oil (60% compared with 24% on average for OECD Europe). • Gas prices in Europe increased on average by 35% between 2005 and 2006 and a further 12% in 2007. Oil prices doubled between July 2007 and July 2008. http://www.sei.ie/Publications/Statistics_Publications/EPSSU_Publications/Understanding_Electricity_and_Gas_Prices/Understanding%20Electricity%20and%20Gas%20Prices.pdf

Sustainability and Computing And the energy prices are not what they used to be!! Eurostat (2008), Electricity Prices for second semester 2007, http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KSQA-08-023/EN/KS-QA-08-023-EN.PDF

Sustainability and Computing & Computing and Sustainability