L2ideas Green Blog

Exploring Environmentalism, Sustainability, and Business Solutions

The Environmental Impact of War

When we think of war, we first think of the human impact. We categorize and characterize: men, women, children: soldiers, warriors, innocent bystandars, complicit, etc. It is only when a war drags on for a long time do we stop to consider the environmental impact.

Well, all wars have a negative environmental impact. Sometimes the impact is just awful. Consider, for example, the impact of the following:


  • WWII in the European theatre was pretty grim. The land was ravaged by bombing and trench warfare.

  • Nagasaki and Hiroshima were horrific examples of this topic

  • Testing atomic bombs during the Cold War by both sides had a remarkably bad impact to several areas and those areas will be radioactive for generations.

  • Napalm in the Vietnam war changed the landscape of that area of the world.



Well, here are two more to add to the list. And the environmental impact of these conflicts continues to burn:


Will we ever learn?

What do we need to do to counter-balance this destruction with positive action? When you are ready to act, L2ideas can help.

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Data Centers Going Green

Some data center operators are working on being green. This article writes about a specific data center that took advantage of California's rebate program.

...said the reduction of energy during peak time was the primary way the company achieved its savings.


Each year we invite PG&E in for an energy audit to ensure we are following the most energy efficient procedures in our data center," he said. For example, in 2007, 365 Main "expanded the areas that utilize motion-controlled lighting in the data center and also re-insulated the condenser water lines for the building's massive air conditioning system," as well as reducing lighting levels in public areas during peak days. Finally, we adjusted the weekly and monthly test schedules of our generators to peak days, which reduces our utility consumption by almost 8% during test periods. This adjustment of the testing schedule allows us to reduce utility consumption without ever affecting the reliability or N+1 redundancy of our power system."

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Green and God

A Vatican official, Bishop Crepaldi, seems to be harkening back to the old yarn about how Creation is intended to serve man. Perhaps the Catholic church is getting worried about how concerns for the environment may supplant the interpretation of the world offered by the church.


Vatican


Two recent Los Angeles Times Opinion piece grapples with the idea that "environmentalism has become a secular proxy religion"


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