Walk this way

With the migration of the ThinkingString main website onto a WordPress platform, this blog has now been migrated to the ThinkingString main website. All the blog content has been migrated over from here to there, and no further updates will be made to this blog.

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What's happening with Quocirca?

Quocirca has taken up a phenomenal amount of my time since I joined with them earlier this year (which is a good thing). I've been busy writing and blogging under the Quocirca brand here and here (and check out other articles at the Quocirca web site). Meanwhile this blog has been left to rot alone.

At Quocirca the focus is on technology, specifically IT hardwareos ,ftware, software as a service and related services as they relate to whatever business problem that is being solved. In relation to sustainability there (of course) much focus on energy efficiency at the device and datacentre levels, innovations in the energy metering world, and nascent efforts to produce sustainability dashboards. And much more as well.

But that leaves all the social changes, politics, legislation, and general societal trends out of the picture. Hence I intent to swing some of those voices to this blog, giving me a clear separation between technology and none technology discussions. However all related to sustainability.

Busy. Busy. Busy

Its all been 'go' since ThinkingString Ltd began providing coverage services to Quocirca Ltd. All the Quocirca folk have been very welcoming and helpful, but there has been a lot of organising to do in order to get my feet under the desk. Quocirca also has a great and trusted brand name and so the activity level has been on the up and up.

Quocirca has been looking at datacentre efficiency for a while, with both Clive Longbottom and Bob Tarzey also writing and researching around the pros and cons of various IT services provisioning models as far as their relative GHG emissions levels. My intention with Quocirca is to look at both efficiency gains, as well as the strategic role of IT as an enabler to the reduction of overall emissions by business.

What will be important in achieving efficiency gains will be to ensure that data centres are targeting a real emissions reduction, rather than focusing simply on productivity/energy. Making a data centre twice as productive per watt of energy consumed is laudable, however it is a wash in emissions terms if the gains are subsequently consumed by increased processing in the future. If business is serious about reducing emissions, we need to target an immediate 50% cut in energy consumption, and then maintain that level through the continued introduction of new technology and alternate energy production techniques.

We also need to make sure that any new technology introduced in order to reduce energy consumption doesn't actually result in higher GHG emissions elsewhere. It is important to factor in the HW replacement lifecycle costs, and the energy going into the production of the latest gee-whizz-energy-efficient model that replaces the old tried-and-true one we already had. It is also vital that the manufacturing technique for energy efficient devices doesn't generate harmful emissions. More on that later.

In the coming weeks I'll be revamping the ThinkingString website and also this blog. I'm looking to combine it all and along the way simplify the layout, and simplify it from my point of view as far as administration is concerned. Much to do...too few minutes in the day.

The toaster might be more energy efficient, but we're cooking in it

James Hansen is the NASA scientist who twenty years ago warned the US Government about the reality of, and the dangers in climate change. In 1988, during what was then a record year of high temperatures (a record repeatedly exceeded since), Hansen testified before Congress and called for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Two decades later Hansen has again appeared before US Congress to say that we have long since passed the "dangerous level" for atmospheric GHG levels. In short, we need to get back to 1988 levels in order to survive. Hansen is a man to be listened to. He is the director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences, and has been "popularly" referred to as "the godfather of global warming science" - though his message is by no means popular with many who hear it.

Hansen's warning underscores the fact that energy efficiency, while being desirable and laudable, is not going to get us to where we need to be. Only transformational change, in societal structure (and therefore living and working lives) will drive GHG levels down to sustainable (and survivable) levels. In the technology industry, a reduced energy usage per computing task is only any good as long as the resultant efficiency is not simply burned doing more "business as usual" computing work. In transport, energy efficient vehicles are only any good if we don't use them to drive further. The list goes on.

This is the difficult part for us all. Energy efficient light bulbs do not cast a comforting light on the real task facing us. The simple changes are 95% comforting, and only 5% effective. A building that doesn't need artificial light to be a useful structure is better. Not requiring the building at all is transformational.

As Hansen told The Associated Press; "We're toast if we don't get on a very different path. This is the last chance."

Quocirca

Very pleased to announce here that I have joined forces with Quocirca. I'll be covering "sustainability" for Quocirca. What does that mean? For a start I'll be looking at both techniques and technologies to reduce the footprint of existing ICT services. This is getting a lot of buzz in the trade press as "GreenIT", though as I have blogged about before - efficiencies are good business practice but they don't get us where we need to get to. So more importantly I'll be looking at the use of ICT, new energy generation techniques , and emissions capture technologies that are transformational in nature i.e. they enable a change in way that society and business operates.

Breakfast of champions

We hear all the time that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The question is; what's better: cereal, toast, English fry up, eggs, porridge? All of these are regarded as satisfying and all of them have their supporters (though personally I prefer avocado on toast with a cup of white tea). This morning however I had a really satisfying breakfast; a spirited debate concerning peak oil and climate change with an Estonian MP. Though I am sometimes accused of not being the best company first thing in the morning, I really appreciated the pick-me-up of some intelligent and passionate discussion over the cold remains of the first meal of the day.

Political expediency and the focus on the short term often overrides the necessity for long term strategic planning. My breakfast companion made the point (rightly) that the moment of inertia was too high for the necessary social changes to occur. I do not disagree with this point, and the recent reactions to high oil prices highlight this; hand wrenching by our political leaders as they wonder whether to bow to public cries for tax relief on bowser prices. This is why we must urgently, initiate and maintain a multi-party dialogue free of political point scoring. Only by addressing the barriers of opinion can we move forward.

Thank you Mr. MP for a champion start to the day.

Earlier in June I posted this quote from John Wyndham. The intervening ten or so days has just reinforced the appropriateness of the quote, in my mind. Both the IEA, and Alexey Miller, who is the head of the Kremlin-owned gas giant Gazprom, are pointing to the likelihood of $250 a barrel oil prices. Much hand wringing and protesting by truck drivers all over the place. The drivers are even choking on their jasmine rice in Thailand, though whether a "drive-slow" or a "traffic blockade" would be noticed in Bangkok is another question.

Meanwhile, in my native Australia petrol is now at A$1.60 a litre and predicted to head to A$2.00. The Australian government of Kevin Rudd, which was voted in only last year and promptly signed up Australia belatedly to the Kyoto protocol, doesn't have the bravery to say what needs to be said: "Price reflects supply, and what we're seeing now is a harbinger of what a carbon emission restricted economy and lifestyle will look like".

This is why, to me, a carbon-down future is not an issue for technology. The highest barriers we will need to overcome are those in people's minds. Mind you, we can't blame them. Governments the world over have known about the reality and risks of climate change for at least twenty years, while Hubbert predicted global peak oil in the 1950s. Economic policy, education curriculum, and a lack of bravery and honesty by politicians have wrapped humanity in a warm(ing) comforter blanket of high energy dependency.

On the weekend I met up with some friends. The teenage son of one couple said that his high school science teacher says that global warming is caused by sunspots. I choked on my beer (we were having a quick rest and refreshment halfway through a bike ride), while I quickly jotted down the name of his school so I can make sure I don't send my kids there. No doubt it would be regarded as inappropriate meddling to make the reality of anthropogenic climate change a required aspect of the next generation's eduction. Pity, as they are going to have to live with the consequences of the choices and actions of today's workforce and government.