QUICK NEWS, February 18: The Imaginative Climate Change Solution; Tech Giants Must Buy More New Energy – Greenpeace
The Imaginative Climate Change Solution How sci-fi could help solve climate change
Zoe Sayler, February 18, 2019 (Grist)
“…Is there science fiction out there right now, sitting on some library bookshelf, that could pave a yellow brick road to a better future? And, if there isn’t, shouldn’t there be?...[W]hile dystopian fiction can be a jarring wake-up call…scholars and writers are increasingly calling for stories that help us rise above our most intimidating challenges…[We have H.G. Wells to thank for the rocket. Star Trek inspired the first mobile phone. Climate fiction could] dramatize our hopes and offer us different visions of the future…[In “Better Worlds,” The Verge’s recent series of optimistic science fiction short stories and videos, several stories] explore themes of climate and social justice…
...[Arizona State University’s] Center for Science and the Imagination has published anthologies spotlighting climate literature, optimistic sci-fi, or both, and is set to release a new anthology this spring called The Weight of Light, which pairs visions of a solar future with scientific essays that describe and analyze the premise behind the prose…[We need more big, risky, earth-shattering ideas from science fiction writers. Sci-fi author Neal Stephenson blames a dearth of forward-looking science fiction for what he calls “innovation starvation”… But does optimistic climate fiction sell?...Journalist Dan Bloom, who coined the term cli-fi in 2008…[Others think] sci-fi video games could have a positive impact…[Thunderbird Strike, a game by Elizabeth LaPensée about the harms of oil drilling,] makes an overwhelming problem feel like a game that anyone can win.” click here for more
Tech Giants Must Buy More New Energy – Greenpeace Is Amazon breaking 100% renewables commitment? Greenpeace report says yes
Michelle Froese, February 13, 2019 (Windpower Engineering and Development)
“…Amazon Web Services, already one of the largest electricity customers in the [Virginia], appears to have abandoned its commitment to renewable energy, with evidence of a dramatic expansion in Virginia over the past two years without any additional supply of renewable energy [according to Clicking Clean Virginia – The Dirty Energy Powering Data Center Alley…[Unless Amazon and other cloud computing giants stop further fueling climate change with new demand for dirty energy, the] growing use of the internet could lead to more pipelines, more pollution and more problems…[About 70% of the world’s internet traffic passes through Northern Virginia’s ‘data center alley,’ the largest data center hub in the world]…
Of the data center operators included in the analysis, Facebook has achieved 37% renewables in Virginia, Microsoft 34%, while Google and Digital Realty are at 4% renewables. Apple and Salesforce do not own data centers in Virginia, but have offset 100 and 44% of their colocation leases with renewables, respectively. Amazon’s data centers in Virginia are powered by only 12% renewable energy…[Total power demand of existing data centers and those under development in Virginia is] approaching 4.5 GW…[Amazon Web Services has] 1.7 GW of power demand across 55 Virginia data centers operating or under construction, representing an increase of nearly 60% in the past two years alone… Facebook, Microsoft, and Google all operate or are building their own data centers in the Commonwealth and have not matched this demand with local renewables…” click here for more
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