just an asterisk

Recently a friend of mine who is, shall we say, rabidly pro-environment told me how she has used a site called ‘Blackle’ to help ‘save the planet’. The premise is simple; it replicates Google, which has an all-white screen but with an all black-screen, purportedly saving a gazillion gallons of energy each year.

I went to the site and it actually logs how much energy (in Watt Hours) it is saving. I ran a few #s and it turns out that even if the #s are right it is equal to every American Household shutting one single 100 Watt Bulb for 1 minute at the beginning of every season.  Still in all, given that it requires zero effort to use it instead of Google and returns the same results, I’d be more than happy to use it even for those meager savings since it satisfies even the most conservative cost-benefit ratio analysis. I’m all for doing ‘my part’ and obviously the more measurable the benefit the more I’m willing to (reasonably) sacrifice in terms of time, money or comfort.

All that said, I certainly fall more towards the ‘skeptic’ camp in terms of ‘Global Warming’ (recently renamed ‘Climate Change’ to counter critics who point out is has now been cooling for several years) and advocate an honest dialog which doesn’t label ‘skeptics’ as lunatics, traitors, arch-conservatives who only care about money, or paid-for-hire scientists in the pockets of Big Oil.   I am hoping the recent discovery of emails between leading ‘global warming advocates and scientists’ (Hacked E-Mail Is New Fodder for Climate Dispute, New York Times, 11/21/09) that showed the lengths they are going to hide data that contradicts their findings and/or to discredit those who do will at least start to make an honest dialog possible.

In any event, what does this have to do with Blackle where I started? Is there anything wrong with using Blackle vs Google even if it only makes a tiny dent in energy usage? Absolutely not, and I’d in fact switch my search engine page to Blackle if the science behind it is good (I spend an inordinate amount of time on Google). Kudos to another ‘Curious George’ who did a little research into the issue  (read the article here) and found out that while Blackle’s concept might hold true for CRT Monitors it is in fact the opposite of true for LCD Monitors (the flat panels many/most of us use on our desktop monitors and all of us use on our laptops); CRT Monitors use about 1/3 less energy to use Black Pixels (e.g. Blackle vs Google) while LDC Monitors use about 5% MORE Energy to display black vs white pixels. The science behind why this is really irrelevant; the point is that in an overzealous attempt to ‘save the earth’, Blackle and most Blackle users are actually increasing energy output/usage (albeit infinitesimally)

What really struck me about the article was that LCD monitors use anywhere from 2 ½ to 3 times LESS energy then CRTS regardless, and that difference is MOST pronounced the more illuminated the screen is (e.g. Google White Pages)

In other words, while Blackle was purportedly decreasing Energy Consumption by computer users by 1 100th of 1 Percent and only while using Google, LCD Monitors have lowered energy consumption by the same group as much as 33% the entire time they are on, or as much as 100,000 times as much consumption reduction as Blackle would even it worked as intended*.

So chalk one up for ‘technology’; in the effort to make technology smaller and lighter, we have inadvertently had a major impact on energy consumption and even material consumption (certainly LCDs take far less plastics to build then CRTs). I’d imagine a lot of the net result of technological advancement falls within this model.

Do we need watchdogs to make sure companies and people don’t destroy rivers, oceans, skies and resources? Of course. What we don’t need is knee-jerk acceptance of every ‘Sky is Falling’ theory and theorist, adoption of every purported Blackle-type ‘answer’, and rejection of technology or infrastructure just because it doesn’t have a Green Label on it. I mean isn’t the ultimate manifestation of this mindset ultimately to have a site called ‘Black on Blackle’ with black text on a black background? Just assume it works for the Earth, and not even worry if it works for assume for Earthlings… (and no, please don’t write to me and remind me that Owls and Whales are Earthlings, I understand, really I do) Kudos for Blackle and my un-named friend for caring and trying; lets just not forget that technology doesn’t have to be green to… be green.

**Based on Following Figures Assumptions:
.02% of Internet Users use/visit Blackle
vs
43% of users visiting/using Google
8 hours of computer/monitor usage a day
15 minutes of Google/Searching per day
100% penetration of LCD Monitors (could not find any good stats online, if anyone has them please let me know) and most screens being white or near white vs black or near black)
and using the reported figures of LCD/CRT energy requirements for Black vs White Pixels.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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