10-08-2013, 02:36 PM
Cloud Computing and its Contribution to Climate Change
Cloud Computing .pdf (Size: 7.08 MB / Downloads: 67)
INTRODUCTION
The announcement of Apple’s iPad has been much
anticipated by a world with an ever-increasing appetite for
mobile computing devices as a way to connect, interact,
learn and work. As rumours circulated – first about its
existence and then about its capabilities - the iPad
received more media attention than any other gadget in
recent memory. Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs
finally showcased his company’s latest creation before a
rapt audience in San Francisco. From their smart phones
and netbooks, the crowd feverishly blogged and tweeted
real time updates out to a curious world.
Whether you actually want an iPad or not, there is no
doubt that it is a harbinger of things to come. The iPad
relies upon cloud-based computing to stream video,
download music and books, and fetch email. Already,
millions access the ‘cloud’ to make use of online social
networks, watch streaming video, check email and create
documents, and store thousands of digital photos online
on popular web-hosted sites like Flickr and Picasa.
The term cloud, or cloud computing, used as a metaphor
for the internet, is based on an infrastructure and business
model whereby - rather than being stored on your own
device - data, entertainment, news and other products
and services are delivered to your device, in real time,
from the internet. The creation of the cloud has been a
boon both to the companies hosting it and to consumers
who now need nothing but a personal computer and
internet access to fulfill most of their computing needs.
Facebook vs. Yahoo
For example, in January 2010, Facebook commissioned a new data
centre in Oregon and committed to a power service provider
agreement with PacificCorp, a utility that gets the majority of its energy
from coal-fired power stations, the United States’ largest source of
greenhouse gas emissions. Effectively becoming an industrial-scale
consumer of electricity, Facebook now faces the same choices and
challenges that other large ‘cloud-computing’ companies have in
building their data centres. With a premium being placed on access to
the cheapest electricity available on the grid. In many countries, this
means dirty coal.
All the same, other companies have made better decisions for siting
some of their data centres. Yahoo!, for instance, chose to build a data
centre outside Buffalo, New York, that is powered by energy from a
hydroelectric power plant - dramatically decreasing its carbon
footprint. Google Energy, a subsidiary of cloud leader Google, applied
and was recently approved as a regulated wholesale buyer and seller
of electricity in the United States, giving it greater flexibility as to where it
buys its electricity to power its data centres.
Policy recommendations
ICT should support
It is clear that as the energy demand of the cloud grows, the supply of
renewable energy must also keep pace. Additionally, because of the
unique opportunities provided to the ICT sector in a carbon-
constrained world, the industry as a whole should be advocating for
strong policies that result in economy-wide emissions reductions.
Among prime concern is priority grid access for renewable sources of
energy. Rules on grid access, transmission and cost sharing are very
often inadequate. Legislation must be clear, especially concerning cost
distribution and transmission fees. Where necessary, grid extension or
reinforcement costs should be borne by the grid operators, and shared
between all consumers, because the environmental benefits of
renewables are a public good and system operation is a natural
monopoly.
Support real climate action in the United States
The flawed climate bills moving through the US Congress are riddled
with giveaways to the coal industry and made hollow by the huge
amounts of carbon offsets made available to polluters. Greenpeace
is calling on President Obama to support policies to keep global
temperatures as far below a 2°C increase as possible, compared to
pre-industrial levels, to avert catastrophic climate change by:
• Setting a goal of peaking global emissions by 2015 and be as close
to zero as possible by 2050, compared to 1990 levels;
• Cutting emissions in the US by 25% to 40% by 2020, compared to
1990 levels; and
• Joining and encouraging other members of the G8 to establish a
funding mechanism that provides $106 billion US dollars a year by
2020 to help developing countries adapt to global warming impacts
that are now unavoidable and halt tropical deforestation.