Wim 🈂️ @wim_v12e@cybre.space

I wrote an article about the need for low-carbon and #sustainable #computing and the path towards zero-carbon computing.

tl;dr:

** The problem:
* By 2040 emissions from computing alone will be close to half the emissions level acceptable to keep global warming below 2°C. This growth in computing emissions is unsustainable: it would make it virtually impossible to meet the emissions warming limit.
* The emissions from production of computing devices far exceed the emissions from operating them, so even if devices are more energy efficient producing more of them will make the emissions problem worse. Therefore we must extend the useful life of our computing devices.
** The solution:
As a society we need to start treating computational resources as finite and precious, to be utilised only when necessary, and as effectively as possible. We need frugal computing: achieving the same results for less energy.
** The vision: please read the article, I'm out of characters.

https://wimvanderbauwhede.github.io/articles/frugal-computing/

Yay, I now have #pleroma running on a PYNQ-Z1 FPGA board. It has a 650MHz dual-core Arm Cortex-A9 with 512MB RAM. That is not enough memory to run #mastodon though.

I had a look at the implications of the Facebook Metaverse on emissions from computing. It is scary.

For the ideal VR experience, you need a network bandwidth of 1.6Gbit/s. To watch an HD video at 4K currently, you need 25Mbits/s; 8K would be 100Mbits/s.

So VR requires 64x more bandwidth than 4K video!

Ignoring the infrastructure emissions, purely running this from a cloud data centre effectively means a 64x increase in energy consumption and therefore in carbon emissions.

When I researched my talk about Frugal Computing, I did not discuss VR, as none of the studies I referenced considered it. But with a giant like Facebook behind it, VR might become a very considerable part of our lives.

That would be a disaster: already, emissions from computing are dominated by video. VR will make this many, many times worse.

The only bright side is that with current technologies, there is not enough electricity in the world to power this ideal-experience VR revolution.

#frugalcomputing
#climatecrisis
#metaverse

"The greenhouse gas emissions of nuclear energy – Life cycle assessment of a European pressurised reactor"

"""
Results for the process-based, input-output, and hybrid methods range between 16.55–17.69, 18.82–35.15, and 24.61–32.74 gCO2e/kWh, respectively.
These are either well above or at the upper end of the range of possibilities (5 to 22 gCO2e/kWh) stated in a report for the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, and significantly higher than the median value of 12 gCO2e/kWh presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. They are also higher than the values acknowledged by the nuclear industry. Given the severe potential lock-in effects of today’s energy choices for future generations, this research questions the role of nuclear energy to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals and calls for further scrutiny on its sustainability and environmental viability.
"""

(tl;dr: nuclear is not carbon-neutral, and even the lowest estimate in this paper is higher than IPCC's)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261921002555

"The albedo–climate penalty of hydropower reservoirs"

"""
We conclude that future hydropower plants need to minimize the albedo penalty to make a meaningful contribution towards limiting global warming.
"""

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-021-00784-y

If you are interested in customer experience, please check out this book: "The Most Rewarding Way to Improve Profitability — How to create excellent customer experiences"
(I did the illustrations)

http://strategic-consulting.scot/book/

All proceeds go to the Scottish homelessness charity Cyrenians https://cyrenians.scot/

1% the world population accounts for more than half of all emissions from flying.

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/one-percent-worlds-population-accounts-more-half-flying-emissions

As promised I wrote an article about my motivation for creating Haku, my Japanese-language programming language.

https://wimvanderbauwhede.github.io/articles/why-i-wrote-haku/

#programming
#japanese

"Speaking strictly for me", to quote the song, this is the best version of "Diamonds and Rust"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvaTBcQPTVQ

#np

UK’s climate science deniers rebrand https://www.politico.eu/article/climate-change-skeptics-united-kingdom-science-deniers-rebrand/