Earth Day 2022: Make technology a friend in the fight to protect environment
The World Earth Day, celebrated every year on April 22, is a medium to draw nations’ attention towards issues that concern our natural environment and efforts needed to bring about sustainable changes in our lifestyles.
The theme of Earth Day 2022 is to ‘Invest in our planet’. Last year, the theme was to ‘Restore our Earth’ and in 2020, it was ‘Climate action’.
Technology is advancing fast and speeding our day-to-day activities thus helping us do more in less period of time. A fast-paced, technology-led lifestyle definitely takes a toll on environment. But making smart choices that are driven by environmental consciousness can bring about a positive change.
Let’s look at the 5 technology approaches you can take to make this earth a better place.
- Tempted by a new smartphone? Wait and ask if you really need one
The golden rule for keeping a check on binge shopping habit is to delay your purchase by a week. If you still feel like buying then it is quite possible that your requirement is genuine.
Also, it is prudent to use your devices to the extent possible. Let change be the last option. If your smartphone, laptop or any device can be repaired then go for it…getting lured by market forces that tempt you with new models or products is a non-sustainable activity.
Also read: How can you help fight climate change? Don’t waste food, try upcyling
Using a custom ROM can extend the life of your phone. Upgrading to a new model of refrigerator or a TV or a car should be NEED-based and not GREED-based.
2. Old is still gold
Remember the quintessential old markets, aka chor bazaar? It used to be a hub for everything old, necessary and cheap. Fortunately, the old-world charm still exists with India being a hot market for old laptops, TVs, smartphones and refrigerators. More often than not you are likely to get a good deal on online classified platforms like OLX, Quikr which specialise in connecting people who want buy, sell or exchange used goods and services.
Such platforms not only offer value-for-money deals, but help bring cyclability in the markets by providing a platform for second and third hand products. This is a great way to control e-waste in the longer run.
3. Energy ratings on ACs, refrigerators say a lot
Buying a 5-star rated air conditioner may cost you more than a 2-star one but it is worth the price and the environmental benefits that the device may boast of. After all, most of our electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels like coal which are responsible for climate change. So while buying a new fridge, AC, washing machine or TV, check the BEE energy rating on an appliance before you buy it.
Also read: To stop species annihilation, protect forests, adopt regenerative agriculture
BEE energy ratings, measured via a 5-star rating system, tell you how energy efficient a new appliance is. The more the stars, the better, with 5-star products offering the highest energy efficiency.
4. Clear unnecessary junk on the cloud
If you think cloud computing is absolutely environment-friendly because it does not require space to store your data, then you are wrong.
Cloud may not be obstructing the space on your hard drive on phone memory, but it does take up physical space. Today, we click endless photos and videos thinking it is not your phone that is eating up the space, but there are data centers somewhere that are backing up all the data that you generate unconsciously. So try to keep your Google drive clean, delete repetitive photos and clear email spam and old mails that are no longer needed. Besides, data centres need a lot of electricity for storage and for maintaining air conditioning for maintenance 24×7. Minimising load on such data centres will help save a lot of energy.
We can reduce the load on physical data centres by cutting down on unnecessary cloud storage usage by keeping what we need and rejecting the clutter.
5. Use digital alternatives as much as possible
While digitisation is very energy-intensive, the move towards digital money has had environmental benefits as well by way of reducing paper usage. Making payments online, getting work done through apps/websites save fuel which you could have otherwise spent on travelling to the bank or workplace.
Also read: Pune man uses vacant flat to make compost from city’s garbage
Thus, prudent use of technology and its devices can help save energy and help you make a meaningful contribution towards making this earth a sustainable planet.
