Sustainable Computers

Vision for Sustainable Computers

Our world is facing a series of very extreme environmental challenges that young people will need to address in coming years.

Technology can help us meet these challenges because technology can democratise information and help people make better informed decisions about actions to be taken.

The Raspberry Pi or any Linux device are excellent tools because they supports a range of information sharing technologies and is very resource efficient.

If you can learn how to use Linux, then you can more directly help local communities.

Your mission should therefore be to understand as much as you can about Linux and the Raspberry Pi so that you can support the hosting of information to help your local community, especially information and ideas that you are passionate about.

If the world and its problems seem too big, imagine instead that you live on a small island. How would you live? What would you do? And how would you use a Linux computer?

In an ideal world we would live Simply, Frugally and Happily:

• Live in a tiny, well insulated home
• Grow vegetables, fruits and nuts in our front and back yards
• Eat more vegetables and less dairy, fish and meat
• Travel by walking, cycling or taking public transport or by telecommuting (working from home)
• Buy Green Energy or install a small PV system for home use (2 x 200W PV Panels) with battery storage
• Use all roof water in large tanks (10,000 to 20,000 litre capacity) and use grey water for growing food
• Compost all food, green and organic waste at home and even make humanure
• Live on less - consume just 10% of what we do today
• Teach others how to make and do things for free
• Give and donate time (more than money) to charity and community events
• Have strong family, social and community ties

The important role for technology is to help us achieve the goal of sustainable living. While it can be argued that we do not need technology to live sustainably, some appropriate technology will improve living standards by making information more accessible.

All technology has an effect on people and the environment.  Look at the Youtube videos The Story of Stuff and The Story of Electronics

We will be focusing on projects that will help the environment and that also give us a good working knowledge of computers:

• Learning to repair and build things
• Learning to share our knowledge
• Learning how to monitor the environment to keep our planet safe

See also The Simplicity Institute - Melbourne University https://simplicityinstitute.org

How to make a computer more sustainable

Here are some simple guide lines on how you can make any computer more sustainable. Ideally, a computer should last for 10-20 years and perform important, but limited functions.

• If you have a PC install Debian Linux.
• If you have a Mac you can keep the existing operating system but don't upgrade it constantly.
• Install an app so that you can monitor the processor temperature. Ideally the temperature should be 40degC or lower. High processor temperatures will shorten the life of the computer.
• Applications to run on the computer include:
  • Word processing and other office suite applications - e.g. OpenOffice or LibreOffice
  • PDF Viewer - for reading books and other documents
  • Web browser - viewing WikiPedia and other MediaWiki based web sites and not processor intensive. Also no advertising or tracking software.
  • Email - based text based communication tool.
  • Media players - for audio, music and videos (e.g. VLC or QuickTime).
  • Entertainment software (such as computer games) that are not processor intensive.
  • Programming software - examples are Geany and Arduino development environments.
  • Miscellaneous - photo editing, scanning, Voice over IP (VoIP).

• Unfortunately, any computer software that results in high processor temperatures or excessive writes to the hard drive or solid state drive (SSD) will shorten the life of the computer.
• Video conferencing software is also processor intensive.

Role of Local Government

Local government should play a significant role in supporting a sustainable technology ecosystem.

• Provide free email to local residents
• Host WikiPedia sites with relevance to the community (e.g. Urban farming wiki)
• Host file servers with educational and Creative Commons content and resources for schools (e.g. Khan Academy)
• Host community social pages for special interest groups related to sustainability