From TreeHugger:
All-Nighter PCs Cost U.S. Businesses $1.7 Billion
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 07. 6.07Forcing your PC to pull another pointless all-nighter isn’t just polluting, it’s also a waste of money. Make that a lot of money. Nearly half of all corporate computers in the United States don’t get turned off at night, costing U.S. businesses $1.72 billion in annual energy costs and spewing 14.4 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year, according to a new report.
Let’s give those numbers some context: A midsize company with around 10,000 PCs wastes more than $165,000 per year in electricity costs for computers left on overnight, while contributing 1,381 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Giving those same computers a breather every night would have roughly the same effect as taking 2.58 million cars off the road, which is more than the number of autos zipping around the entire state of Maryland.
Halifax to Vancouver in a Smart Car
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07. 9.076,158 kilometres or 3826 miles, from coast to coast, on only 337 litres or 89 gallons of gas in nine days. John Leblanc and his 14 year old daughter Olivia drove it across prairies and over the Rockies. “I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I was a little anxious about how the Smart’s minimal power was going to handle crossing the Rockies’ higher elevations.” and he was originally nervous about the big trucks and SUV’s on the highways,”but instead of counting on the vehicle’s crashworthiness to get us to the West Coast in one piece, I drove the Smart like I drive any car that’s not mine: look as far down the road as possible and give everyone else lots of room.” He concludes “Yet, other than crossing steep mountain passes, or keeping up with the reality of fast highway traffic, the 40 hp Smart never felt overwhelmed. For Olivia and myself, and a week’s worth of luggage, the ForTwo was more than capable as a way to travel the country economically.”
This just demonstrates the silliness of the American car manufacturers and their Washington poodles who can’t hit an average of 35 MPG in twelve years. Imagine: 89 gallons of gas to cross the entire country and you can do that right now in comfort and style
Note: that’s “only” 42MPG. The Toyota Echo (and other similar cars) gets about the same, if not more.