The Role of IT in Climate Change

Apart from all the sophisticated modeling of the climate, IT plays a key role in mitigating the crisis. I was talking today to a friend about his connectivity problems. He was still using dial up because he could'nt get cable internet or DSL. I suggested that he use get a USB cable for this phone and get an Edge or GPRS connection. (With your SMART Buddy prepaid phone, you can get a connection for PHP10/ 30mins. ) Later that day, I asked him if all the remote mission stations he was serving had cell phones. When he said yes, I said that we can connect them to the Web. I also realised that my work in participative energy planning could be made more efficient with collaborative technologies like gtalk or skype.

The importance of collaborative technologies is the possibility of avoiding travel, thus reducing cost and carbon of any endeavor. At Intel, we greatly reduced cost by having frequent teleconferences supported by filesharing and chatting. We even had worldwide training sessions using netmeeting. At Sunpower, we aslo used video conferencing and skype. Using these technologies we could pass files if the connection bandwidth permitted. Otherwise, we could post files on web locations for retrieval by anyone in the group interested.

With the emergence of the open source movement more technology options are accessible to developing countries. We improve the lives of the rural folk by linking them to the world and by reducing their need to travel. We can also equip them with real time tools for adaptation and emergency response. IT is indeed a comprehensive strategy for mitigating and adapting to climate change.