The data centres of big computer companies, like Google and Facebook use a huge amount of energy. One study claims that data centres will use 20% of our global energy consumption in less than ten years. Discarded computers can contain poisons like lead, mercury, beryllium, cadmium and different kinds of harmful plastics that are difficult or impossible to dispose of in a sensible way.
Unfortunately, the computer giants only indirectly have an interest in the environment. The more often you throw away your old computer and buy a new one, the more money they make. The more you use their cloud services and social media and see their ads, the more money they make. Luckily, a lot of computer companies are aware of their negative impact, and they try to improve the situation. At least, many of them say so, and I guess some of them actually do something.
Nevertheless, if we users want to help the environment, we unfortunately often have to fight the actions of the companies.
Keep your old hardware.
There is an environmental impact of hardware that is thrown away, and that needs to be taken care of. The longer you can use your old computer, the better - in most cases. Unfortunately, a lot of web sites get more and more bloated, with tons of javascript and integrated movies, which slows down our old computers, and which make them use more electricity.
If you need to go to power hungry sites that block your computer, so you need to sit and use it for much longer time than you would have needed on a new computer, it may be time to switch. You may have to do this even if it is accepting defeat. Your computer worked fine when it was new. That it is slow now is solely the fault of the companies that provide it with bloated software and bloated web sites.
Switch off javascript.
There are still web sites that work fine without javascript. Switch it off in your browser whenever you can, and the pages will load much faster.
Switch off automatic media.
Unfortunately, I have not found many settings that work for this. There are still idiotic irrelevant films that run as soon as one accesses certain pages, at least when javascript is on.
One thing to do here is really painful, but it helps. Load the page. Once all the text is loaded, highlight it with ctrl+a or command+a. Then copy it with ctrl+c or command-c. Then close the browser window with ctrl+w or command+w. From this moment, there is no unnecessary heavy data traffic. There is no unnecessary script doing obscure things. Now, go to a text or word processor and paste. You will now be able to read the pasted page in Word or TextEdit, or wherever it is, and there will not be much more impact on the environment than the lit screen.
Use Ad blockers.
In general, one should not use ad blockers. There are web sites that are free to us and paid by income from advertisements. If we switch off all ads, those web sites will die, and no one will get the free information. However, when a web site hosts high resolution movies and heavy javascript for their ads, the environmental cost is heavy. In those cases, there is a very good reason to block it.
Switch web sites.
Avoid power hungry websites. Try to find quicker sites that provide similar information.
Switch off automatic updates.
Facebook may think it fun to send out 400 Mb updates of its app every week or every other day on your smartphone to fix a few invisible bugs. However, it is expensive for the environment. Facebook has to use power both to host the data and to allow you to download it. Network companies pay for the transport. You pay for the data traffic, and your phone spends power on downloading, verifying and installing the software. Often the benefit of the update is zero. Sometimes it is negative, as the update that was supposed to fix a problem that was insignificant instead adds a bug that is really annoying.
Most software, app stores and download programs have an option to switch off automatic updates. Switch it off. Keep an eye on the news, and if people talk of big security risks or great new functionality, update the software manually. Once. Not every day.
Some intrusive software, like Apple's Appstore on iOS devices, displays red circles to notify you that there is new software to download. You can actually switch those distracting circles off. Go into Settings and Notifications, and block notifications from places that display red circles you don't want.
In short
Computer companies make us harm the environment more than necessary. We can fight back. It is better for the environment and cheaper for us.
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