WHAT SHOULD WE DO TO SUPPORT GREEN COMPUTING

Green computing is essential to protect , our children, our health, and our future. It can also save money.  Unfortunately, the technology we embraced with open arms does not agree with our human needs in important ways, and no one checked very carefully. Computing today is not "green". It's "black". See below for more on this.  Technology that agrees with and supports human needs (one of which is to preserve a healthy Earth so it can sustain us) is green technology.  Happily, the twin parts of the problem (the technology and our behavior in using it) can both be changed.

The "black computing" problem is having some terrible effects:

·         Energy use of all those computers running on electricity and generating greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide is a real concern, but is only one part of a big picture.

·         Intensely poisonous dissolved metals are moving into our local water supplies,

·         Residues of toxic cleaning products (made necessary by the toxic materials in electronics) are also poisonous in our water, and are leaking throughout widely in the environment, causing fierce damage.

·         These poisons, such as flame retardants, evaporate from computers into the air of offices and homes and accumulate in our bodies over time.

·         The U.S EPA does not even require that most of these be tested for toxic effects, but children and adults are damaged.

·         The effects of just these air-born poisons are to change human behavior, disrupt endocrine (hormone) function, irreparably damage reproductive systems and cause thyroid disease. This likely more we just have not discovered yet. A small decrease in thyroid hormone levels can produce cognitive impairment in children, including lowered IQ. ADHD, hyperactivity, autism, and mental retardation all are possible linked to the poisons in computers.

·         The garbage and waste we produce in disposing of computers and electronics is poisonous, is a huge danger, and going unrecognized most of the time.

·         A damaged ability to sleep well results from large amounts of looking at illuminated screens (i.e. as currently built in computer monitors, cell phones, video game units, televisions, etc.), especially within a few hours of bed time. How much exposure is needed seems to vary with the individual. Children seem sensitive to their patterns of sleep, still being formed through their teens, being disrupted later in life.  Damage to the development of the nervous systems of children when they use illuminated screens only moderately. (This applies to children at least until age 12. Reference will be posted soon.)

·         Cancer risk from this same exposure to illuminated screens described above.

·         Radiation from computers and monitors is damaging to people and can be mitigated. In Europe, computer monitors cannot be built that exceed a certain amount of radiation. In the USA there is no government standard for monitors or related equipment.