Green Technology Will Challenge the World During the Next Decade

As an individual living on this planet that we call Earth, I have a personal stake as we all do in helping to make our planet a little more green. It seems that people are willing do to more of their share to help protect our planet. Growing up all I heard was how the ozone layer was destroyed and that it will never be the same again. However, even with diagrams and such showing where the ozone layer is and the special graphic showing holes in it, it is an item that is hard to find personal responsibility towards its demise. We all heard how CO2 emissions were and are the cause of the Ozone depletion. I think I was like everyone else, kind of hard to worry about the ozone layer when one cannot look up and see the hole. It was not like you can look up and see...."gosh look Martha, there is a huge hole up there, what are we going to do?"

Today I think that people are more observant to the affect that we are having on the Earth. We see documentaries and ads showing us items that were pulled out of the landfill that could have been recycled. We see pristine forests with garbage tossed everywhere. People have made us more aware of our overall impact, which I think is a good thing. Therefore, we see more recycling taking place, and people trying to make a conscious decision on how their lives will influence this planet, either in a good way or unfortunately in a bad way. This newfound appreciation of the earth and attempts to protect it are not only from the individual standpoint but also from the corporate business level. Businesses are looking for ways to do things in a manner in which it helps the environment. Wanting to know what encompassed 'Green" and more so "Green Technology" I looked up the definition. I found several points to be of considerable interest as they rely on advances in technology to meet the goal of being green. The definitions that I found interesting, (FULL LIST) are:

• Source reduction - reducing waste and pollution by changing patterns of production and consumption

• Innovation - developing alternatives to technologies - whether fossil fuel or chemical intensive agriculture - that have been demonstrated to damage health and the environment.

• Energy - Perhaps the most urgent issue for green technology, this includes the development of alternative fuels, new means of generating energy and energy efficiency.

• "Cradle to cradle" design - ending the "cradle to grave" cycle of manufactured products, by creating products that can be fully reclaimed or re-used.

As we go forward this next decade, I see a number of areas where technology will be embracing new procedures, tools, and innovation to help to make this world a little bit greener. Some are subtle items that we can all decide on while others must rely on companies and manufactures of goods to use new technology to help us all. From how we live our lives to how we move people there are many ways of helping planet Earth.

Going paperless is one way that we can all help save the planet. We can save trees by reducing the amount of paper that we consume. Most companies allow us to pay our bills online and many are offering to send us electronic statements so that we do not need to rely upon the old standard of paper statements in the mail. This seems simple enough, but I think most of us still receive the bulk of our bills in the mail instead of the inbox. If I can make a prediction, I think that by 2020 at least 70% of our bills will be emailed to us.

Computer and electronic recycling is on the rise. Many states are putting laws into place making it illegal to just dump our old equipment into landfills. This is a positive move and one where I think again we will see significant changes. There are a number of companies that are working hard to recycle the equipment and to salvage the metals and other minerals from the components of main boards, hard drives, circuit boards, etc. Recycling helps to reduce toxic items being buried in landfills, but also helps to give us future materials to build the next chip, or main board, etc. Other companies are working hard to give the equipment a second life by taking parts from one computer and another computer to make a single working unit for low-income people. Old Cell phones are being donated to be refurbished so that domestic abuse victims have a phone to call for emergencies. There are a number of ways to recycle all your electronic goods.

One of the latest trends that is happening, and one that I think will only grow more and more in the next ten years is "Green Communities". These encompasses a number of things from changing the way that water is used so that run-off during a rain storm is collected and used to water plants to high-tech communities that are incorporating solar, wind and thermal energy. One such community is being planned for in Northern California, where the builders are expecting the community of 50,000 homes to produce enough electricity to not only power all these homes, but to also provide some electricity to surrounding townships. We have already seen a huge increase of building using recycled building supplies from recycled timber to using metal studs made from recycled steel. Whether using recycled materials or finding ways to generate ones own electricity people are looking for ways to affect the earth. I think that as technology continues to increase and people's inventive minds continue to look for ways to do things better we as a community will see much advancement in 'Green Communities"

Technology is also allowing biology, chemistry, and other sciences to catch up with the modern world. Things that were only thought about and talked about in theory are happening daily around us. Chemists are finding ways to make fuel out of just about everything. We see examples from using algae to manure to corn to old cooking oil to produce bio fuels. We are seeing this same phenomenon in how scientists are building the next generation windmills to solar panels that produce more electricity. One idea is to attach a small generator to rotating doors found on a lot of building so that as the door is being rotated it is not only helping with maintaining of building temperature but also to generate electricity. Innovation is around us everywhere, with that things are becoming smaller and smaller. So goes it with generators of electricity. People everywhere are looking for new opportunities to find the next greatest fuel source.

Some of the largest advancements to come this next decade are directly in relationship to the emergence of technology and where technology is being produced. All over the world, more and more data centers (large buildings that contain many different servers) are in the process of being built and maintained. Headway is taking place to make use of the latest technology in regards to reducing the consumption of electricity. First, using new software utilization items like Hyper V. Hyper V is a technology that allows a physical server to host multiple servers on the same physical server hardware. Instead of a server only being able to do one function many items are being installed on that one server. This allows for more efficient use of energy and resources while still allowing for expansion. A single server uses less electricity than five servers. The latest software is allowing for up to 48 different and individual server entities to reside on one physical server box. This is a huge savings in power consumption both from what is needed to provide the same amount of resources to not having to spend additional money on cooling. This ability to allow computers to multitask in terms of hosting multiple computer sessions underneath the main operating system is only going to grow and expand over the next decade. This is truly technology going green. The computer industry is seeing other great areas of innovation. From SSD drives that are static so there is not moving parts, thus no need to keep energy flowing to them when not in use, and they use less electricity to boot.

The appliances in our homes are also helping lower our footprint on the earth. From washers and dryers that are more efficient in use of energy to electrical gadgets that turn themselves off after a set time period to reduce energy use, these are just more items that use technology to reduce energy. The next decade will bring about even more advancements. This is the decade of homes going green from cleaning products to lighting to heating and cooling.

Finally, the way in which we travel will be even more earth friendly and green. The major car manufactures are all working on fully electric cars to eliminate emissions. For battery-powered cars to make it in this world, technology must catch up to allow a battery fuel cell to be cost effective and produce enough electricity to do the job. A lot of money has been and is being invested in this area of future technology. I think the advanced made over the next decade in this single area will probably be the most significant and most publicized. People want cleaner cars and they want them now. We have hybrid cars that mostly run on batteries but they still rely upon a conventional combustion engine. Yes, they do help reduce CO2, and any reduction in emissions is helpful. Vehicles are already getting more miles to the gallon, and producing less CO2. Boeing has announced that their new Dreamliner 787 airplane will use less fuel to go farther carrying more. This is a three-way win. Less fuel consumption equals two wins as less fuel means fewer emissions, and less dependence on fossil fuels. Being able to carry more means that instead of 300 people, it can carry 400 people, this equals greater efficiencies. Cruise ships are also following suit, they are looking for ships that can carry more people and use less energy. Efficiency is the key word that is being used in many modes of transportation.

Technology has been used to transform our world and during the next decade, it will be used to make our world green. From reducing our foot print to finding ways to recycle and reuse, technology will be there every step of the way. Super computers are allowing scientist to develop new ways to produce energy as well as new ways to harness the energy already found on planet earth. Manufacturing plants are finding new ways to use less electricity, or lower emissions. Transporation giants like Boeing are using technology to produce airplanes that are more efficient. Everywhere we look technology is being used to "Go Green".