Weaving a greener web

Alan Patrick reports a discussion at the London Social Media Club about the potential positive contribution of the web to green issues. Alan mainly focuses on the web's failures to date in this regard—such as not actually reducing demand for business travel, as some had predicted.

The web is, of course, already making a huge contribution to the green cause, simply by allowing us to share and find knowledge across geographic boundaries. Without knowledge, we are helpless to act effectively in any sphere.

Moreover, the web is allowing non geographically-limited community (albeit often still geographically-rooted community) to blossom, by enabling people to communicate in a relatively unmediated way with others, regardless of location. This is fostering a tangible sense of global citizenship in millions of people who weren't necessarily thinking of their identity from that perspective before.

No web, no global green consciousness shift? It's certainly hard to imagine how we would have reached the critical mass we seem to have without even the humble email. And witness Al Gore's new Save Our Selves project, with LiveEarth concerts planned on seven continents (including Antartica!) on July 7th.

All this said, given the huge and growing power consumption of web servers, the web will do well to go net carbon-negative, at least in the aspects of its environmental impact that are auditable. The web is at the heart of green activism. Ironic, then, that it's also sucking oil like a goodun.

My provisional conclusion? The web is here to stay and grow, so we may as well use some of those power-hungry processing cycles for the good of the planet.