Reads, takes and links. Posted here, before I forget them.
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How to have a Net Zero target whilst causing as much carbon pollution as possible
I was on a call for Carbon Tracker webinar call about a coming report, and a the subject of the most damaging way to do Net Zero came up. One speaker mentioned a a scenario that really stuck with me – he outlined a way you lets you say you have a Net zero target…
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How clean does electricity need to get for the European ICT sector to half its emissions by 2030?
This post from John Booth from Carbon 3 about the recent coming European Energy efficiency directive, got me thinking about what kinds of changes are needed sector wise to meet their own targets by 2030. Here’s the good quote he draws attention to in his post: ‘The ICT sector is another important sector which receives…
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A provocative, but fascinating way to think about climate impact in a services or consulting business
In 2008, after graduating from university, I saw a talk by Ed Gillespie at the Hub (now the impact Hub) in Angel Islington, London. It really stayed with me, and one result of me coming to that lunchtime talk was that I met someone Jamie Andrews, who was working on an idea called Loco2, a…
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Comparing what is spent on share buybacks vs the cost of decarbonising the grid
When doing some research this week, I came across what I think is a pretty eye opening stat. Tech firms spent twice as much money buying up their own shares in the last 18 months, as it would cost to buy out and shutdown every coal fired coal plant on earth, and replace them with…
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Options to make software greener without changing the code, and how to remember them
I’ve been doing some research into carbon aware computing, and I’m trying to find a memorable way to talk about the choices available to you when you want to deploy computing resources in a responsible way, but can not change the underlying code of the application. This post summarises a couple of recent papers, and…
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Trying a thing – a weekly Tab / Brain Dump
I obsessively make notes in my laptop, but I stil l haven’t found a sensible way to share them. so I’m sharing this post here, in the hope that it’ll force me to clarify my thoughts as I read stuff, and eventually get to some state a bit like being able to follow the Memex…
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Hyperscale datacentre loads as the densest loads on the energy grid – still true?
I recently asked this question on a private mailing list focussed around ICT for sustainability, but having a public url helps when asking more widely. I run a podcast focussed on the environmental impact of ICTs, and I have a question that might be relevant for other studying here. Hyperscale datacentre loads as very dense…
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Paper notes: Computational parasites and hydropower: A political ecology of Bitcoin mining on the Columbia River
I just finished reading this paper on a lazy Sunday morning, and this post is a bit of an experiment in trying to capture the stuff I learn and make it easier to come back to in future. Why is this paper interesting? This paper does a fantastic job of exploring the politics behind cryptocurrencies,…
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Useful resources for developers interested in solar
A friend of mine, Carlton Gibson recently asked me for some links, people to follow, and leads in general to look up for a developers taking a new interest in solar technology. @mrchrisadams hiya — happy new year! Can I ask, if I asked if you had any good leads on accounts/blogs to follow on…
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TIL: Using Caddy with Django apps instead of Nginx
As mentioned before, I’ve been doing a bunch of work recently with Caddy, and a number of web apps. These are my notes for using Caddy, and why I think I prefer using it over nginx from now on. I also share a sample Caddyfile config for showing how to use it instead of nginx.
Got any book recommendations?