Passing up the goodies

On Saturday, I stated my belief

that the only true answer to terrorism, ultimately the only effective "weapon" against terrorism, is justice, a justice that may well mean sacrifices on the part of the haves - and in terms of the world as a whole, that includes virtually all of us - in favor of the have-nots. Not sacrifices of freedoms or philosophies, but of finances.

I figured it was obvious that the "us" in that sentence referred secondarily to Americans (even the poorest of who would be considered reasonably well-off by the standards of much of the world) and primarily to people reading this, but just in case it wasn't, there it is. I invited you "to ask yourself how much you would be prepared to inconvenience yourself, how many (for example) of our high-tech goodies we'd be willing to give up or pay more for, in order to bring that justice to others."

Here's a small possibility on the high-tech goodies front: How about giving up a few iterations of Moore's Law?

Moore's Law is the idea first enunciated in 1965 by Gordon Moore, now Chairman emeritus of Intel, that the memory capacity of computers will double roughly every two years. So far, despite several predictions of its imminent demise, it's pretty much held up.

That seems like a good thing at first glance but it comes with serious environmental costs. According to a new UN study discussed by columnist Stephen Strauss in the March 15 Toronto Globe & Mail, a

24 kilogram [roughly 50 pound] desktop computer requires ten times its weight in fossil fuels and chemicals to manufacture.

Conversely a car or a refrigerator requires only one or two times its weight in fossil fuels to make.

[Eric] Williams[, a professor at the United Nations University in Tokyo who did the study,] did some subsequent calculations and says it takes roughly 1.8 tonnes of raw material to make the world's indispensable information machine - a weight equal to that of a rhinoceros. What this means is that when people throw away their old computers because Moore's Law has made them obsolete, tonnes - literally - of material along with the energy to create them gets dumped. Not to mention the effects of dumped lead, mercury and a variety of noxious chemicals on the environment.

Which means it's a good thing both in terms of the environment and resource depletion to resist the urge to get a new computer until upgrading the old one simply won't cut it any more - particularly because making the chips is the most energy-intensive part of the process. In short, do with less.

And if you do get a new machine, Williams says, "promptly selling old computers to the used-product market is also important." Don't get attached to it, stick it in the garage thinking that you'll do something with it someday, only to eventually toss it as trash, adding to solid waste.

In fact, don't even sell it, donate it. There are any number of charitable organizations that will take used computers. Here's a link that should get you started. Or check your phone directory.