alt.tech

The abbreviation ‘FUD’ usually means ‘Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt‘ to us nerds. It’s what big companies use to stop their customers from switching to other, less spread, technology. It’s what made IT-managers way back buy IBM and IT-managers today buy Windows. Anything else is considered a risk (if nothing else, of being fired).

Yesterday I found this web page. If you don’t understand Swedish, it’s an page from the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, announcing their ‘FUD-program 2007′, about nuclear power and the final storage of nuclear waste. Being the nerd that I am, I found it hilarious. Now, ofc the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority isn’t spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about nuclear safety. (Although maybe they should, considering the risks associated) No, FUD in this case means ‘Research, Development, Demonstration’ (In Swedish: Forskning, Utveckling, Demonstration).

Maybe this is an attempt from some nerdy swedish public emplyee to alert people on what’s really going on in the Swedish authority. No matter what, their bad choise of abbreviation deserves some attention, just for the fun of it.

Some interesting facts about Swedish nuclear power:

• We produce the most nuclear power in the world per capita
• We have some of the best prerequisites for renewable energy in the world
• We have better prerequisites for wind power than Germany has, but produces about 5% as much wind power as does Germany
• We use about 3 times as much electricity per capita as most European countries
• About half of our electricity comes from nuclear power
• Liberal (at least that’s what they call themselves) politicians in Swe demands that we build new nuclear power plants
• It takes about 20 seconds to switch a light bulb into a more energy efficient one
• It takes at least 20 years to build a new nuclear power plant

Environment, Politics

Later this week, I’m going to Växjö, in the south in Sweden, to try out a recumbent bike. When I was in Berlin last fall, I tried a few different models. It was just half an hour, but I was hooked. Since then I’ve been longing to mount one once again, and now it’s happening.

When you say the word bicycle, most people would get a certain image of what one should look like. For most people, the recumbent bicycle is nowhere near that image. Still, it’s not all that big a diffence. If you’re not hell bent on the (near) standing upright position of most bicycles, it’s definitely worth a look. Especially considering that the wind resistance is your main loss of energy while riding a bike.

With all the environmental debate going on recently, theres been a lot of focus on the development on cars, trains and even airplanes. But the cheapest and most environmentally vehicle would surely be the bicycle. I’m getting a new one, and hopefully I’ll see you on the road, ok?

Development, Environment

There’s been a lot of debate about the consequences of increased ethanol consumption lately. First, this is a problem that is very real, anyone who thought ethanol was a miracle drug against climate change better look again. But I would like to say that it’s more of a problem with our overall energy consumption than a specific ethanol problem. We seem to forget about the huge problems with oil, main one being that we now annually consume an amount of oil that takes 10,000 years to create in nature.

That’s right, the current oil ratio is about 1:10,000.

Or we could say that a sustainable consumption of oil would be 0,01% of the current.

However we say it, it’s clear that our transports are consuming way to much energy. People used to think that there were unlimited natural resources in the world, and for the most of human history that’s been virtually true. It’s not until maybe the last hundred or so years that our ecological footprint has been too big for the planet. Unfortunately, many people seem not to have taken notice. Thus, we get a discussion about ethanol as though it was a new problem, not the same one all over.

Democracy, Environment

Saving the planet could be a lot easier that one might think. According to British environmentalist Norman Myers, about $1.45 trillion is annually spent on “perverse subsidies” (1998). That’s $1.45*10^12 or $1,450,000,000,000 spent on subsidies that damages the environment and indirectly (or sometimes very directly) hurts the economy.

There shouls be no question about whether these money, spent in a sustainable way, would make a world of difference. As are they today, only in the wrong direction. They are the reason our seas are being emptied on fish, food production in poor countries is destroyed and gasoline in the US is cheaper than bottled water.

PS. James Martin claims that Norman Myers has come up with a figure of about $2 trillion annually. All I could find was the one above from 1998, presenting about $500 billion less than James Martin. If anyone can find a more recent study, that would be helpful.

Environment, Politics

In the darkest and coldest months of the year, there’s a virus spreading. Slight headache? Feeling of anxiety? Well, you might not be suffering from a hangover since new years eve after all. You may just as well have caught the Affluenza virus, peaking in december.

At the moment I#m taking a rest from reading the book “Affluenza – The All-Consuming Epidemic”, second edition. (New and Improved, just like in the ads). I’m wondering about where our high-tech society is really carrying us. I can see a pattern of corporate owned technology (protected by patents, just to be safe) designed to push our consumtion closer to, or even past, our limits. A credit card mayhem is wrecking havoc, creating the slave labour of the 21st century.

“A powerful virus has infected American society, threatening our wallets, our friendships, our families, our communities, and our environment. We call the virus Affluenza. And because the United States has become the economic model for most of the world, the virus is now loose on every continent”

You are susceptible to the affluenza virus; do you want to step out of the hamster wheel? (Yes / No / Cancel)

Update: Valuable treasures can sometimes be found at Pirate Bay, if nowhere else.

Development, Disobedience, Environment, Patents

Today I opened up a new book – The Meaning Of the 21st Century by James Martin. Martin’s view is that the 21st century is the make-or-break of human civilization.

“A transition, unique in human history will occur.
If the transition goes well, humanity has a magnificent future. If it goes badly, we may be thrown into a new Dark Age or worse.”

Into my mind pops this article. A group, calling themselves The Wild Growing Collective, are advocating Anarcho-primitivism; a civilization critical ideology proposing a return to the “non-civilized” era of hunting and gathering.

It is easy, and very tempting, to dismiss the anarko-primitivists. For the humankind to live like hunters and gatherers we need to decrease the global population by about 99%. Just think about the path there for a while…

Still, I know the primitivists have no viable solution for the global problems, but I can’t help to think… How come people seeing a Mad Max apocalyptic scenario in the future get so little respect when people seeing the Star Trek colonizing-space scenario get so much? How come Christer Fuglesang gets away with saying that colonizing space could be a good alternative with all the environmental problems on earth, like global warming. Moving onto other planets isn’t a very realistic alternative for six billion people either. In fact, it’s a far worse solution than just returning to hunters and gatherers. Really! How are we supposed to manage life on other planets if we can’t handle it on earth – a planet so optimal that life emerged on it’s own?

So, still waiting for the solution? Maybe that’s just the problem, people waiting for the easy solution. The truth is that the solutions aren’t easy. They require us to use the best of civilizations knowledge, but not to once again increase our consumption of natural resources, but to decrease it. They require us to adapt our economy to the reality of ecology. They require us to base the most critical decisions of mankind on what world we want our children to live in – not quarterly reports.

And we all have to play a part, sooner or later. It starts with you or it ends with you, your choice!

Development, Environment, Politics

The Swedish magazine Techworld writes about D-link’s new ethernet switches. The series is called “Green Ethernet” and consumes up to 44% less power than it’s predecessors. It’s really interesting to see new ICT-products being marketed using environmental arguments. (Remember the Zonbu?)

So, is the wattmeter entering the tech magazines test labs? I hope so. It’s been really hard getting the full picture of what ICT-products really cost, considering that the power consumption is a very real cost to the consumer. With more and more computers running 24/7, even in our homes, the electrical bill is a bigger part of our computing cost than ever. Especially considering that the price of hardware is falling. And when it comes to products like network switches, the amount running 24/7 is virtually 100%.

Now, let’s show the industry that these are products the consumers really want. It’s a win-win.

Environment

On the twelfth of October the OLPC project starts a sale of the XO laptop. Buy one, pay for two. Yes, that’s right, you pay for two laptops and get only one. The other laptop goes to a child in a developing country, which is basically the purpose of the whole project, as I’ve written about previously.

Perfect Christmas gift for my kids!

Development, Environment, Free Software, Sharing

Ja, så lyder den nya slogan. Grönt behöver inte göra dig blå. Zonbu heter företaget som står bakom den och deras idé är att sälja en liten miljövänlig, energisnål och tyst dator tillsammans med en prenumeration på lagringsutrymme på nätet.

Jag brukar inte göra reklam för kommersiella produkter, men jag tycker att idén är genialisk. Och den kunde inte ligga mer i tiden. Miljödebatten har tagit fart igen och allt fler börjar se problemen med energislukande, krÃ¥nglande, högljudda datorer pÃ¥ skrivborden. Datorer som dessutom är dyra – mycket dyrare än vad som stÃ¥r pÃ¥ prislappen. Elförbrukningen kostar pengar. Virusskyddet kostar pengar. Pajade hÃ¥rddiskar, kraschade operativsystem och byte av trasiga fläktar kostar bÃ¥de pengar och frustration.

Men nu börjar alternativen komma. Extremt energisnåla datorer som inte låter en endaste liten dB, där uppdateringar av programvara ingår och där det inte finns en enda rörlig del som kan gå sönder.

Vi har inte sett slutet av det här. Tills vidare hyllar vi Zonbu, ett lysande initiativ!

Environment, Free Software