Category: Uncategorized
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Half formed idea: energy gravity and an energy gradient
I’m sharing this idea in half-baked form, because increasingly, when I think about electricity grid, I want to visualise it in this way to help understand the differences between various ways a power grid can be structured. If you think of energy has a gradient in the Z-axis where resources (as in generation) are peaks,…
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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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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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Quick notes before I forget about last mile mobility, community tech and climate
I keep looking for these links, and searching through my own mastodon /twitter blog poss is getting old. so I’m going dump them here Ways to direct funding to more sustainable variants of community tech This is partly a response to a blog post from Matt Webb aages back about last mile delivery in COVID…
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Experiments with remote birthday greetings
I’ve recently been experimenting with using remote conferencing tools to make it easier to use video for richer, more intimate messages, and below is a post I’ve shared in a few private social networks. I tried a few services, but it turns out that it’s totally possible to use enterprise teleconferencing software to share recorded…
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Getting the bottom of that asinine article about the CO2 footprint of email
I keep seeing people online talk about this piece in the Guardian. I shared this thread when it first came out, as it made me pretty angry before, but I think I need to expand on it now, as it Just. Won’t. Die. I’m miffed because this is the digital version of talking entirely about…
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Notes from the Future Ethics at UX Book club
I went to the first UX Book Club Berlin in a while last night, and it covered Cennyd Bowles’ book from 2018, Future Ethics. Below are my notes. Apologies for the quality. A set of notes for future reference Peter’s Bihr’s writing is accessible and really interesting in this field. This whose work I referred…