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Bench 3 Fall 2008
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by PBworks15 years, 5 months ago
Environmental
The use of integrated circuits, specifically in computers, increases for many lives around the world. As of 2005, 906 million personal computers take part in people’s lives around world. However the pollution of these machines on our environment will go up if something doesn’t change. To give an idea of how much this effects our environment, assume sixty percent of the world leaves their computer on overnight. In just one year 32 million tons of carbon dioxide would release into the atmosphere. This amount of carbon dioxide has the same effect on the environment as 21.8 million automobiles. [1] To have a cleaner environment the amount of pollution from personal computers needs to go down.
Energy
Along with computers, the number of servers continues to increase as we continually seek to stock pile tons of data. Just think of all the multimedia content available online these days. All those You Tube videos are stored on huge servers that get millions of requests a day. As the number of servers increases, so to does the power required to run them. This increasing amount of power to servers around the world has to do with the design of integrated circuits. Along with the power needed to run the servers comes the power needed for the cooling system. Eventually as time goes on the cost of making a server and the cost of powering a server including the cooling system will equal each other. However, companies will start to include efficiency with performance as a guideline in designing ICs. [2]
Economic
The United States spends nine trillion dollars every year. However of the nine trillion dollars, two trillion goes to waste. [3] To reduce the amount of money wasted, the United States can recycle more of their products rather than just throwing them in the trash. Also, reducing energy costs will help reduce the amount of money that the United States spends.
Equity
We all share this one planet. What happens in one part of the world ultimately affects us all. When one nation has lax environmental polices and allows their industries to operate without regulation it not only affects the citizens of those nations but the greater global community as well. On the other hand, when one nation takes the initiative to implement environmentally responsible policies, this can have a positive influence on the global community. For example, Japan has standards for making their lifestyle more efficient. These regulations include an energy saving law which forces companies and consumers to worry about the world they live in. Some of the features of this law include requirements for using energy efficient gas and oil appliances such as stoves in all homes. [4] By getting an idea from other countries energy laws, this little would help improve the environment, energy consumption, and the economy.
[1] World Watch, “Matters of Scale - Pointless PC Pollution, “
[3] P. Hawken, A. Lovins, and L.H. Lovins, Natural Capitalism. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1999, pp. 49-50, 57-58. Available: http://www.natcap.org/images/other/NCchapter3.pdf [Accessed November 13, 2008]
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Comments (6)
Anonymous said
at 11:02 am on Nov 19, 2008
Bravo I say. My only issue, really, was how in the "Environment" section, you went from computers being left on all night to xx amounts of carbon dioxide let into the atmosphere. Perhaps a better explanation of why this is the case is necessary.
Anonymous said
at 11:28 am on Nov 19, 2008
Well written overall. I might consider finding a way to tie all the points together. Possibly consider the laws of Ecology in more depth and use those to tie together the 4 E's. Also note that in paragraph one the sentence "...an idea of how much this effects our environment..." should have the word effects replaced with "affects".
Anonymous said
at 12:49 pm on Nov 19, 2008
This was a well-written piece. I liked how you cited Japan as an example that compares their regulations and behavior with ours. However, I think your case would be strengthened if you gave examples of the ways America wastes 2 trillion dollars so we can see how we can cut back on waste.
Anonymous said
at 12:53 pm on Nov 19, 2008
I totally agree on the environmental issues that you brought up. Even though petroleum products make life easier, finding, producing, moving, and using them can cause problems for our environment like air and water pollution. I believe your Environment sustainability issues will be even better if you suggest better techniques that we can use to improve our petroleum usage. Although we all know that recycling is good for our environment, if you talk more about its benefits, I believe that more people will consider recycling more seriously.
Anonymous said
at 12:40 am on Nov 20, 2008
The ideas and issues presented in this sustainability report are great. It is very much true that the cost of operating high end servers can very much outweigh the cost of the unit itself when considering the cost of hvac and power for the data centers in which the servers reside.
As I said before, the ideas are great. However, you may want to consider trying to make them mesh a little more together. Your sources provide valid information and arguments, however some of the information is just put out there with no lead in. Straight to the point is good, but I'd like to hear your opinion on your sources information as well. Good job!
Anonymous said
at 4:45 pm on Nov 20, 2008
I agree with David that you need to talk about what the US wastes money on and if it even relates to anything that we have done in EE 346. What does recycling paper have to do with Semiconductors? Also reducing the price of energy will only make me want to use more of it and make me less interested that I might be wasting it like wasting water. I think your best section was on Equity and inferring that the US should imitate Japan in making stricter laws to reduce waste.
You don't have permission to comment on this page.
Comments (6)
Anonymous said
at 11:02 am on Nov 19, 2008
Bravo I say. My only issue, really, was how in the "Environment" section, you went from computers being left on all night to xx amounts of carbon dioxide let into the atmosphere. Perhaps a better explanation of why this is the case is necessary.
Anonymous said
at 11:28 am on Nov 19, 2008
Well written overall. I might consider finding a way to tie all the points together. Possibly consider the laws of Ecology in more depth and use those to tie together the 4 E's. Also note that in paragraph one the sentence "...an idea of how much this effects our environment..." should have the word effects replaced with "affects".
Anonymous said
at 12:49 pm on Nov 19, 2008
This was a well-written piece. I liked how you cited Japan as an example that compares their regulations and behavior with ours. However, I think your case would be strengthened if you gave examples of the ways America wastes 2 trillion dollars so we can see how we can cut back on waste.
Anonymous said
at 12:53 pm on Nov 19, 2008
I totally agree on the environmental issues that you brought up. Even though petroleum products make life easier, finding, producing, moving, and using them can cause problems for our environment like air and water pollution. I believe your Environment sustainability issues will be even better if you suggest better techniques that we can use to improve our petroleum usage. Although we all know that recycling is good for our environment, if you talk more about its benefits, I believe that more people will consider recycling more seriously.
Anonymous said
at 12:40 am on Nov 20, 2008
The ideas and issues presented in this sustainability report are great. It is very much true that the cost of operating high end servers can very much outweigh the cost of the unit itself when considering the cost of hvac and power for the data centers in which the servers reside.
As I said before, the ideas are great. However, you may want to consider trying to make them mesh a little more together. Your sources provide valid information and arguments, however some of the information is just put out there with no lead in. Straight to the point is good, but I'd like to hear your opinion on your sources information as well. Good job!
Anonymous said
at 4:45 pm on Nov 20, 2008
I agree with David that you need to talk about what the US wastes money on and if it even relates to anything that we have done in EE 346. What does recycling paper have to do with Semiconductors? Also reducing the price of energy will only make me want to use more of it and make me less interested that I might be wasting it like wasting water. I think your best section was on Equity and inferring that the US should imitate Japan in making stricter laws to reduce waste.
You don't have permission to comment on this page.