Yesterday, I saw an article on Yahoo, titled "Leaving computers on overnight = $2.8 billion a year". The article basically pointed out the savings in both dollars and carbon emissions by simply turning off your computer at night. In regards to carbon emissions the article stated:
On a CO2 basis, that's 20 million tons of carbon dioxide, about the amount produced by 4 million cars on the road.
See here for the complete story
http://tech.yahoo.com/...
More of what I found after the jump.
I then decided to see some of the comments users posted in reply to this article. I guess I was somewhat taken aback by the negativity, indifference, lack of logic and outright nastiness of those in favor of leaving their computers on all night long. The fact that the author of the article decided to site the carbon savings on the environment must have gotten under the skin of the internet wingnuttery, because they were commenting in full force. There were over 1,500 posted comments to the article, but quite a few had a wingnut take. My informal survey of the first 100 comments broke down as such:
39 positive (positively viewed turning off their computer at night)
27 negative (wingnuts)
36 non-compliant for at least reasonable reasons or simply just asking further questions
Here is just a sampling of some of the angrier and off the wall comments. Note I did not edit these responses. They are as incoherent and nasty as originally posted and also filled with plenty of grammatical and spelling errors.
OMG , pretty soon were going to be regulating how much time we can be on the internet , just to save a few bucks and a tree . Give me a break , there is nothing we can do to destroy this planet . And how come we only have freedom for only the things people think we should have freedom for . If it is my choice to leave my pc on all night , thats my choice . I am so sick of this " green " attitude this country has . So many other things to worry about that are far more important.
It's my money and I'll always leave it on. Get a life.
You know what,this is just another bull sh.. story, to enhance "Global Warning". Until the Government shuts it spending down and stops spreading my wealth to those who are Government Leaches, I have the money and will do as I please!
Most recomendations to "save" energy and power miss one fact. When consumers reduce power use the power company will recieve less revenue, they will in turn rate rates to compensate for lower revenue to them. So consumer recieve less and pay more. So the billions saved will result in higher costs per kilowatt to consumers. The power companies need those billions to operate. Read any article about why utilities need more money and often mentioned is lower usage by consumers.
Carbon Dioxide is NOT a toxic gas. This entire discussion is what my grandfather would call "Tom-foolery". Research how much carbon dioxide is emitted per second by: 1. The Sun. 2. Any normal volcano eruption. This Green stuff also reminds me of a guy jumping up and down thinking he's knocking the earth off orbit. How silly.
Do you hear what I hear? A nation of whining babies, carbon foot print and global warming is a bunch of bull****. Instead of removing the idiots that are in power making up this crap to control your life, your worried about drinking water from a plastic bottle, or buying groceries in a plastic bag, or being LAAAAZY by leaving your computers on too long. WAKE UP! with this HOPE & CHANGE clown who is spending TRILLIONS in less than 100 days you are worried about being lazy and leaving your computers on, what a bunch of whining babies. You wont have a recognizable country to live in, or should I say you will be living under a TYRANT in very short order, then you will be thinking about surviving instead of how much energy you are wasting. WAKE UP!
Good little Yahooligans here, believe all you hear, the tube speaks only truth. the Obamination is the true lord and savior. if you're truly serious about your carbon footprint, you would do the world a favor and stop breathing. follow the money for the truth.
to start i dont care about the enviroment it has been here long before i was born and it will be here long after i am dead. i leave my comuters on i let my care idle i speed and i smoke so you dumb axx yupies can go take a flying xxxx into outer space
Hey, I work for a electric utility, keep those little machines a humming away. The righteous people who say turn them off are the same ones that wants to pay for Time of Use type meter so they can control when you electricity
It must be noted though that there were individuals who put forth a rational argument and disagreed with turning off their computers at night, since they believed that the wear and tear on the machinery would cause more damage and shorten the overall computers life. I am not a techie, but my informal search of the web on this subject seems to indicate the benefits of shutting down your machine outweigh the minute wear and tear the computer might receive over its lifetime. Again, I am not a techie, so any further information that sheds more light on this argument would be welcomed.
Again, I was initially taken aback by the anger, hostility and just plain selfishness of many of the posters. When I further considered their responses, I could not help but compare their rants to little children. Their arguments are simply, "I want my electricity and it’s nobody’s business how much I use or waste". How different is this from a child who makes demands such as I want my toy or cookie. Yes I realize the childs demands probably affect no one but themselves, but it is the type of response that I see as similar. I find the response of these individuals to be very base and primal, devoid of any logic or consideration of how their actions affect others. They simply look at a situation and consider only how it will affect them and that is the beginning and the end of the discussion. The entire side of their argument is simply filled with rants at the author, Obama, government, conspiracies, etc, but nothing that is even remotely rational without the slightest consideration to the other sides argument.
I am saddened to call these individuals fellow Americans, and hope that ultimately people (I use the term loosely) such as these will not interfere with the important work we all have in front of us in tackling the difficult issue of Global Warming.
Peace.