Written by: Preethi. P
Speaking about Information technologies in growth of sustainability, one must never forget to acknowledge the realities of global Anthropocene Epoch. Having said this fact, these extensive factors that contribute to an unconditional rise in global temperature are being monitored perpetually with the aid of today's advancing Information technologies like EOS Data Analytics (EOSDA), bringing out sustainable solutions through data analytics provided by AI powered satellites that render improvements in the fields of agriculture, forestry, etc.
In addition to that, there were consistent emergence of diverse technologies tending to reduce the detrimental impacts on Earth's resources. Before going into its deeper insights, Its an ultimate necessity to understand the depth of circumstances that played a major role in the severity of global warming as stated by the Intergovernmental Panel On Climatic Change (IPCC).
1) AIR POLLUTION:
The first and foremost is elicited from the explicit reports of air pollution at Delhi in 2021. According to the World Air Quality Report, New Delhi was characterized with the worst air quality among the 63 common polluted cities in the world. Upon studying the issue further, The report has also concluded that the PM2.5 concentrations in 48% of the country's cities (tiny particles in the air that are 2.5 micrometers or smaller in length) were more than 10 times higher than that of the one specified by the World Health Organization's (WHO) air quality guidelines.
2) WATER POLLUTION:
The next major issue depicted is the water pollution, making 70% of surface water unfit for human consumption. Its causes could be interrelated with illicit deposits of sewage and garbage by incautious actions of waste management system, thus creating an immerse deterioration in waterbodies of India. Indeed, the study has proven that about 40 million liters of wastewater enter the rivers and other water bodies, out of which only a small fraction is properly treated due to insufficient developments in the framework of waste water management system.
3) FOOD AND WATER STORAGES:
This issue is a sort of common one that is experienced worldwide, whose extent have significantly raised since March 2022 according to IPCC. Though the world seems to be desperate about its efforts to minimize pollutions that ruin earth's prosperity, on the other hand, It has forgotten to look after the aftereffects of weather extremity for which steps were initiated barely compared to those pertaining to pollutions and waste management. This emanation has predominantly impacted the country's climate through droughts and reckless heatwaves that dry up its water sources, leading to escalations in crop deaths.
4) WASTE MANAGEMENT:
Despite the truth that the world is undergoing steady deterioration, the one that cannot be denied is the production of wastes contributing to the country's debilitation. It is estimated that around 277 million tones of municipal solid waste (MSW) are produced every year in par with the rapid urbanization, taking place concurrently on a global basis. Moreover, The production of plastic wastes that account for 6% of the total solid waste generated by the country, has rendered the rivers unfit for human use with its continual emissions on the whole of about 90%.
5) BIODIVERSITY LOSS:
Having discussed these four factors, one can clearly understand that all these significantly contribute to loss of biodiversity as well. According to the study carried out by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in 2021, India has lost almost 90% of the total area considered worldwide as "biodiversity hotspots". It includes the Himalayas, the Western Ghats, the Sunderland (along with Nicobar Islands) and the Indo-Burma region. This sudden loss of habitat has significantly reduced the number of wildlife species with over 12% being classified as 'endangered' and around 25 species rendered to become extinct among 1212 animal species living in India which is being constantly monitored by the International Union for Conservation of nature (IUCN) Red List.
All these scenarios explicitly render us to think about Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDG) to be initiated in the future with a minimal effect on human resources. Though the efforts are put forth in every home to foster sustainability, Information technologies advancing today are definitely bridging its gap to make sustainability possible in every corner of the world.
Further, the innovative solutions through means of Green IT aiming to design ecofriendly computer related products that could be safely disposed, has convincingly reduced the dependence on the use of hazardous materials, consequently promoting biodegradability and lifetime of the products introduced.
So What is Green IT and how it has impacted the environment to converge towards sustainability? Let's have a closer look at it. Green IT (Information Technology) is something that pertains or refers to contributing towards sustainability of the environment by using IT operations. They indeed increase its reliability by enhancing energy efficiency of the products used as well as imparting its role in maintaining constancy of greenhouse gas emissions which ultimately renders organizations and companies to save money undertaking these advanced practices. The Components of Green IT include green networking, cloud computing and services that promote the ascending use of virtualization as well as the recreation of data centers.
BEING THE BENEFICIARY OF GREEN IT:
Due to its incredible advantages, Green IT serves the prior purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by tracking their emissions regularly, leaving no space for errors. It also ensures perpetual supervision over production of toxic electronic waste products that infinitively pollute the environment.
Green IT, in turn, ameliorates the environment by making productive and efficient use of resources, making way to enhance recycling rates. This further helps companies abide by the government regulations. According to the United Nations, Carbon emissions must be reduced to 7.6% every year till 2030 to achieve sustainability.
Path to Green IT also inculcates us Its awareness of being a socially responsible person, taking part actively in its goals to reduce waste by the use of reusable IT equipment's, energy efficient technologies, ensuring allowance for longer maintenance cycles of the products as well as a reduced carbon footprint in the industries worldwide.
TECHNOLOGIES AND PRACTICES AMENDING ECOLOGICAL IMBALANCE:
All services and technologies that are a part of Green IT collectively strive or attempt to create an ecological transition for which it has got the name 'GREEN'.
Commencing with this fact, the major role is played by software's and hardware's concerned with eco-design (Responsible Digital Design or RDD) leading to significant reduction in the budget of IT Systems Department (ISD). This is followed by introduction of telecommunication and network services to draft a framework of Sustainable Development Information System (SDIS) with an objective to diminish the footprint of communication sectors, therefore contributing to overall changes in the economic and behavioural models.
In addition to these, Data centers have been creating a profound impact on the use of green technologies with its ease of emancipating data related to electricity consumption of the terminals, energy consumption and emissions from the product etc, that can be used to calculate one's carbon intensity as a result of their activities.
This is done by using LCA methodology (Life cycle analysis) to track down emissions of individual components of a manufactured device that require breaking it into subparts. After its assessment, the data is stored in the data center to further calculate the carbon intensity of electricity consumption, given by the formula:
Carbon Intensity of Electricity = Number of Kilogram (Kg) of CO2 emitted for each Kilowatt hour (kWh) of energy generated,
which depends on the contributions of renewable and nuclear power in the energy consumption.
One of the best alternatives to reduce emissions include shifting to cloud service providers that runs its operations via the reduced use of energy. To be very specific, the ancillary electricity consumption of all the cloud services is explicitly less than that of a conventional data Centre which is achieved by the even distribution of its power to optimise consumption by the processor. This indeed has significantly improved its computing capacity as well as the network use by means of modifications (Quantifications of antennas, cables and fibres) made to reduce its repeated usage as well us to reduce the carbon footprint provided by the cloud services, especially the AWS, Orange and Microsoft Azure.
Though carbon footprints of digital technologies tend to be causative of global environmental impacts, on the other hand, agricultural practices carried out should definitely be taken into account that effectively contribute to depletion of natural resources, where its aftereffects created are no less than the case of carbon footprints that created an immense global impact. Therefore, modern farming relies on the usage of smart farm monitoring technologies to improve quality and quantity of crops fostered as well as to deduce the weather tracking patterns that favor the growth of crops with the efficient use of resources to increase productivity and sustainability.
This was made actually possible with the functioning of EOSDA crop monitoring in farm management. This digital platform uses the technology of satellite crop monitoring to allow users visualize the crop activity and further analyze the scenario based on the conclusion drafted out of tracking. Its astounding features include plant health monitoring, weather tracking, VRA map generation, equipment data visualization and so on, that encompass effective management of crop growth using data derived with ease.
Not just this, but EOSDA (EOS Data analytics) has its applications implemented in various sectors that require a great demand of AI- powered satellite data analytics which is explicitly stated by the United Nations, with its products featured in 10 out of 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. One of its remarkable applications include EOSDA Landviewer, making ecofriendly footprints in Gran Chaco Americano, the second largest forestland drastically undergoing deforestation in South America.
Its studies were carried out by Greenpeace Global Mapping hub (Branch of Greenpeace International) using GIS, remote sensing and mapping technologies and were proven to be successful after partnering with EOSDA that supported them to cope with the ecological challenges for a period of 3 years. With EOSDA Landviewer, they could also bring out practical solutions by the virtue of creating deforestation maps and consistent tracking of land to protect resources of the forest.
Upon discussing all these advancements to promote sustainability, one can realize its undeniable impacts in making the planet greener and sustainable. Nevertheless, efforts initiated at a primary level could also contribute to greater impacts in ecological transition as that of the one created by IT footprints.
Though measures seem to be a basic one, It's our sole duty to follow these to ensure and foster sustainability worldwide:
• Save electricity consumption by turning off appliances when not in use and by switching to energy efficient LED bulbs.
• Recycling paper is one of the effective practices that play a major role in minimizing wastes.
• Think about 3R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle when you are in demand of plastics, glass or aluminum.
• Taking shorter showers can definitely save water when you habituate to it.
• Reduce overbuying to minimize usage of materials.
• Use refurbished products and equipment to reduce wastage disposal.
• Use reusable cloth bags and refillable water bottles.
• Use public transport system for long trips to reduce carbon footprint.
• Create awareness among your surroundings and mentor them the insights of sustainability contributing to making the planet greener.
• And most importantly, share your thoughts and initiatives to foster sustainability by using the hashtag #greenearth or #sustainablegoals on social networks. It is also equally important to stay informed about goals initiated to improve sustainability by following its updates online or at @GlobalGoalsUN.
I hope this article instills young minds to follow the path of sustainability which, in turn, ensures that the resources of the world are protected and retained for future generations as well as renders the fact that the sustainability is promoted worldwide, thus contributing to making our planet sustainable and greener.
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