• PROGRAM MANAGER - PERMANENT...
• IP Telephony Architect - Cisco VoIP
• Client Principal - Professional...
• Senior Application Project Manager
• PHP Web Developer

Broadband for a sustained environment

Robin Eckermann, Information Age

02/01/2008 04:26:10

Last year I was honoured by the Telecommunications Society of Australia by being invited to deliver the 2006 Charles Todd Oration. Reflecting on the history of TransACT, the challenges and the opportunities that we perceived at the outset of that journey a decade ago led naturally into thinking about how broadband has evolved since that time.

Sadly Australia's progress in equipping the nation with the infrastructure it needs for the future was dogged for many years by political and economic considerations surrounding the sale of Telstra. We've started moving beyond that now - but real progress has yet to gather any sort of momentum.

The link between broadband and socio-economic well-being has long attracted interest, and the evidence of a positive correlation is mounting. However, in arguing why broadband should be a matter of national priority, I also cited a long-held view that broadband can be used to replace many energy-inefficient activities with more environmentally-friendly alternatives.

As a somewhat trite example, consider the difference between driving to the video store to rent a movie and getting that same movie through a video-on-demand service. Two trips to and from the video store of say five minutes each represent 20 minutes of driving, burning around a litre of fuel and some 40m3 of the earth's atmosphere just to start the tally. Needless to say, the toll that this places on the environment is massive compared to the alternative of getting that same content delivered as a stream of light.

These days, it is hard to imagine anyone who isn't yet aware of rising greenhouse gas levels and the threat that these pose to the environment. The phenomena have been extensively researched and documented, and many of the world's leading scientists now predict dire consequences - rising sea levels, climate change, more frequent extreme weather events, droughts, food shortages, loss of biodiversity and the like.

Greenhouse gas levels started climbing dramatically around the time of the industrial revolution and the rise is now strongly linked to deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels. Our energy hungry economies are pumping more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but at the same time we are bulldozing the forests that serve as the Earth's lungs.

Most frightening of all is the emerging identification of positive feedback mechanisms that could lead to catastrophic and irreversible change. For example, as temperatures increase, melt-water from glaciers seeps down and lubricates their slide into the ocean. Beyond 2100, the decline of Greenland's ice sheet may contribute to a 4 to 6m rise in sea levels.

The Centre for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets headquartered at the University of Kansas has developed overlays to Google Earth images to show the impact of different levels of sea rise. Taking a quick look at the impact of a 5m rise in sea levels on their favourite Australian coastal city should quickly dispel anyone's sense of complacency.

It is unlikely that anyone reading this article will still be around in 2100 to experience the more severe consequences that are now predicted. For many, the pace of change is far too slow to inspire any sense of urgency - just as a smoker rationalises that one more cigarette isn't in itself going to trigger lung cancer. We sit in air-conditioned comfort, drive gas-guzzling vehicles and revel in a consumer-centred world in which resources are squandered. Changing our habits is an inconvenience we'd rather defer for the time being.

My own sense of concern about the state of the planet has undoubtedly been sharpened by the arrival over recent years of three delightful grandchildren. With modern health care, they may well live to see in the turn of the next century. But as impact of global warming intensifies, they will almost certainly experience social, economic and environmental dislocation on a scale I can barely contemplate.

It is foreseeable that with a growing population competing for dwindling resources, desperation and violence will also proliferate. What a contrast with the golden era of relative peace and prosperity in which I grew up.

Everyone has a part to play in averting the worst consequences that are now feared. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes three key recommendations - we need to change our lifestyles, we need to apply technology to the problems and we need governments to take a lead in forcing the pace of reform with tough policies (including a tax on carbon).

Broadband can clearly help on at least the first two of these three fronts - it is undeniably changing lifestyles, and it is a technology that can be directly applied to certain problems. In concluding the Charles Todd Oration, I floated the idea of running a challenge to find innovative ideas or compelling proofs of benefit for ways in which broadband could contribute to environmental sustainability.

Much to my delight, Greg Crew from the Telecommunication Society of Australia immediately offered to match my own contribution, and I was gratified to find further generous support from Alcatel-Lucent, Multimedia Victoria and Water for Rivers. The result was a total prize kitty of $10,000.

It is now a little over 12 months since the Broadband Environmental Sustainability Challenge was conceived and the results of this initiative have now been announced by editor-in-chief of the Telecommunications Journal of Australia and chair of the judging panel Prof Peter Gerrand. Overall, the judges were pleased to receive some excellent submissions, four of which have been selected for publication.

Bob Nairn highlighted the potential for broadband to be used to avoid vehicle trips - especially amongst information workers able to work from home one or two days a week. He modelled the impact of taking 5 per cent of cars off the road on any given day. There is obviously a direct 5 per cent saving, but of real interest is the indirect saving that results when the remaining 95 per cent of traffic flows more smoothly. In Canberra, the saving was relatively modest (total reduction of 6 per cent in greenhouse gas emissions), but in Sydney, the reduction was a huge 17 per cent.

Mike Dennis and Haley Jones concentrated on the rising demand for energy and the $100bn investment challenge that Australia will face over the next 25 years if it continues to rely solely on electricity generated centrally and delivered over "dumb" networks. By introducing broadband communications, the potential exists to support distributed generation and intelligent appliances that rationalise usage.

The paper cites the impressive results that have been achieved with a smart, communications-enabled hot water system - reducing energy consumption by 25 per cent relative to the best solar assisted, gas-boosted hot water system.

Roger Saunders looked at the potential to improve agricultural practices by equipping rural and remote communities with broadband access to a growing array of applications based on satellite imagery. Areas of opportunity that were identified include water management, crop assessment, land clearing, soil erosion, salt contamination and pollution. With reference to up-to-date information on the state of the environment, management activities can be optimised to achieve maximum results with minimum intervention.

Tracy Dodd took a more general look at the environmental impact of broadband across a wide range of different applications - and at the potential to use broadband to better inform users of the environmental impact of particular purchasing and lifestyle decisions.

As an example, receiving news wirelessly to a PDA has been assessed at involving 32 times fewer carbon dioxide emissions than purchasing a newspaper. Her paper also highlighted the need to manage more carefully the direct environmental impact of information and communications technologies.

The judges decided to award the $8000 prize jointly for the Nairn and Dennis/Jones papers, and the $2000 prize for water-specific ideas to the Saunders paper.

I am encouraged by the growing public awareness of and concern over the environmental issues that we face moving into the future. However, we face a monumental challenge if we are to arrest the rise in carbon dioxide levels and stabilise the environment in time to avert some of the more catastrophic outcomes.

The Broadband Environmental Sustainability Challenge represents just a small contribution within my own industry - but the results of this year's challenge have highlighted the potential for the industry to play a significant role. I therefore look forward to finding co-sponsors who will support a repeat of the Broadband Environmental Sustainability Challenge in 2008

Robin Eckermann is Adjunct Professor, University of Canberra.