Quayside, Toronto What it promised: Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Google, proposed a high-tech and sustainable neighbourhood on Toronto’s eastern lakeshore. Among the ideas were heated pavements to encourage year-round walking, trash-collecting robots, winterized outdoor spaces protected by plastic “raincoats,” self-driving delivery vehicles on an underground tunnel network, traffic sensors and adaptable street layouts. How it’s… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Green Technologies
How to make your online shopping less of an environmental or carbon footprint mess
Canada Post is expecting a significant increase in holiday packages this year due to COVID-19. But that doesn’t have to mean a higher carbon footprint, according to logistics experts. Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Date: December 14th, 2020 Link (includes 6 minute podcast as well as the article): https://www.cbc.ca/radio/costofliving/you-ve-got-mail-looking-at-delivery-from-shippers-to-drivers-to-receivers-1.5836658/how-to-make-your-online-shopping-less-of-an-environmental-or-carbon-footprint-mess-1.5836703 Discussion Why is important for digital companies… Read more »
You’ve got cheap data, how about cheap power too?
Not only have smartphones crushed all other phone technologies, they have upended dozens of other industries too. They’ve killed the camera and powered the rise of social media and dating apps. They’ve decimated the traditional taxi industry. So what has this got to do with energy? It proves an important point about all successful new… Read more »
Google’s Sidewalk Labs signs deal for ‘smart city’ makeover of Toronto’s waterfront
A unit of Google’s parent company, devoted to urban innovation, has signed a deal to map out a new kind of neighbourhood on Toronto’s waterfront that could demonstrate how data-driven technology can improve the quality of city life. On Tuesday, Sidewalk Labs, a division of Alphabet Inc., and the government agency Waterfront Toronto announced a partnership in… Read more »
Trump Can’t Stop the Globalization of Work—the Internet Will See to That
DONALD TRUMP IS promising to make America great again by keeping others out. That approach is already undermining the smidgen of tentative good will he had enjoyed from the tech industry. As a strategy for keeping jobs in the US, it’s also fatally flawed. Turns out that in a world connected by the internet, isolationism… Read more »
Your tech habits leave a carbon footprint, too
The company you are using and the way you power your home are all factors in the way your technology affects the environment, researchers say. Source: Washington Post Date: February 1, 2017 Link: https://www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2017/01/25/your-tech-habits-leave-a-carbon-footprint-too.html Discussion 1) “How do our tech habits affect how much power we use and the environment? Finding an answer is harder than you may… Read more »
Gadget trash is piling up in Asia
In Asia, electronic trash has reached new heights. A growing number of gadgets — and more people who can afford to buy them — has led to a 63% increase in electronic waste in Asia, according to a study from the United Nations University. And that’s only in the past five years. Phones, computers and… Read more »
Is the world wide web a waste of water?
Researchers at Imperial College London made headlines last year when they claimed that up to 200 litres of water could be involved in the download of a single gigabyte (GB) of data. Source: BBC News Date: October 18th, 2016 Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37471911 Discussion 1) “Whenever you check social media, send an email, or stream a video, you will be… Read more »
Microsoft tests underwater data centre
Microsoft said its reasons for experimenting with underwater data centres were twofold. Firstly, half the world’s population is located within 125 miles (200km) of the coast so data centres in the sea would reduce latency – the time its takes data to travel from its source to customers. But there were also environmental reasons for the… Read more »
The dystopian lake filled by the world’s tech lust
Black sludge pours into the lake – one of many pipes lining the shore (Credit: Liam Young/Unknown Fields) Hidden in an unknown corner of Inner Mongolia is a toxic, nightmarish lake created by our thirst for smartphones, consumer gadgets and green tech. The city-sized Baogang Steel and Rare Earth complex dominates the horizon, its endless… Read more »
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