Global Warming: Is it really up for debate?

There has been a lot of political rhetoric on whether global warming and climate change is fact or fiction. There have been some interesting recent articles from reputable sources on the issue. Take a look…

1. The Economist, A Record Making Effort
2. Treehugger, Which Side of the Global Warming Debate has been Right
3. New York Times, Global Warming

Can Cloud Computing Help Global Warming?

That is what Rob Bernard, the chief environmental strategist for Microsoft, is projecting in his latest article in Sustainable Industries. Microsoft recently commissioned a study with Accenture to analyze the energy and greenhouse gas use for cloud-hosted systems such as Microsoft versus on their own hosted systems.

The study found that organizations could save energy and carbon by switching to the cloud. It found the smaller the organization, the larger the benefit.  The study predicted an effective carbon footprint reduction of up to 90 percent over using local servers for smaller organizations (less than 100 people). For large corporations, the predicted savings were typically 30 percent or more. This is a pretty remarkable carbon and energy savings for smaller businesses.

In addition, cloud computing services can generally save companies money. It ranges from 25-50% savings in your IT costs. PC Computing has a nice article, 13 Terrific Cloud Services for Small Businesses, which provides an overview of companies that offer cloud based computing for small companies.

Global Warming Increases- The Time to Act is Now!

The Guardian just came out with the article, “World is Warming Quicker than Thought” which cites a newly released Met Office report that says 2010 was the hottest year on record globally. Another report entitled World Meteorological Organization’s 2009 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin also cited that greenhouse gases have reached their highest levels with an increase of 27.5% since 1990.

The reality is that global warming isn’t going away. We as a society can’t hide from it any longer. The U.S., along with China, is the largest global gas emitter in the world.

The question is what are you doing about it? Are you part of the solution or still contributing to the problem?

Each of us has the power to make a difference in the warming of the planet. The time to act is now! Commit to one step–one action, that will help reduce global warming.

Here are some good ideas to get you started,

15 Things You Can Do to Stop Global Warming

The Top 50 Things to Do to Stop Global Warming

Sign the Copenhagan Communique on Climate Change

Today, business leaders have a chance to get their voice heard on climate change. The University of Cambridge is compiling a list of world business leaders that will sign a statement that will lead to aggressive changes on climate change globally.  Business leaders from the Corporate Leaders’ Group will be handing a copy of The Copenhagen Communiqué to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown on December 10, 2009 which will be passed onto the leaders at the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.

For more information on climate change visit these websites:

Carbon Disclosure Project

Climate Wire

Climate Ark

Extreme Ice Survey