[LINK] Limit Email Size to Reduce Carbon Emissions?

Tom Worthington Tom.Worthington at tomw.net.au
Thu Oct 11 15:23:13 AEST 2007


Using some back of the envelope calculations, I 
estimate that 20 kbytes of data produces about 
one gram of CO2 per year. So to combat the 
greenhouse effect, I propose the "One Gram 
Initiative", which aims to limit the average 
email message to 20 kbytes and the average 
electronic document to 20 kbytes per A4 page 
equivalent. Software would provide feedback to 
the author on the document size using a row of 
lumps of coal: one lump per gram.

As an example, the Government's  "Be Climate 
Clever—I can do that" booklet consumes about 40 
kbytes per page and would display two "lumps". 
That might not seem much, but if 10 million 
people download it, this will result in 72 tonnes 
of unnecessary CO2 emissions per year. Talk about 
politicians producing hot air.  ;-)

Details: 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2007/10/one-gram-per-message-program.html>.



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                      http://www.tomw.net.au/
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, ANU  





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