Wouldn’t you say you are “inflicting” upon others with your comment? To what end? Maybe think first?
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Written back in 2018, when the pandemic was just a figment of a science fiction/fantasy/horror writer’s/fantasist’s imagination… I say, let’s travel and experience real old fashioned non-electronic interaction and save the planet. 
The energy used in our digital consumption is set to have a bigger impact on global warming than the entire aviation industry
"If you worry about climate change and a cause celebre such as the expansion of Heathrow airport (Heathrow's third runway gets go-ahead from Chris Grayling | Heathrow third runway | The Guardian), it is worth considering that data centres are set to soon have a bigger carbon footprint than the entire aviation industry. Yet as Bridle points out, even that statistic doesn’t quite do justice to some huge potential problems. He mentions the vast amounts of electricity consumed by the operations of the online currency Bitcoin – which, at the height of the speculative frenzies earlier this year, was set to produce an annual amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to 1m transatlantic flights. And he’s anxious about what will happen next: “In response to vast increases in data storage and computational capacity in the last decade, the amount of energy used by data centres has doubled every four years, and is expected to triple in the next 10 years.”
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Good point. Imagine the impact if all those with phones and gadgets hopped in a plane to fly half way around the world to a conference?? Whew. Kiss our butts goodbye. Thank goodness there aren’t enough jets for that.
Good thing more and more of those data centers in 2021 are using renewable energy instead of jet fuel.
PRESS RELEASEApril 9, 2018
Apple now globally powered by 100 percent renewable energy.
Note: That was April 9, 2018 , even before the Guardian article was published.
And there’s this:
“Over 25 European cloud and data center operators, including AWS, Google, Equinix, Interxion, OVH Cloud, etc. have signed an agreement where 75% of the power supplied to data centers in Europe will be supplied through renewable energy or carbon-free energy by December 31, 2025. The objective is to reach 100% by December 31, 2030. This announcement is likely to offer a high impetus to the growth of the data center market in Europe.”
I just signed up for a competitor’s free virtual design summit. And I’ll keep learning at SketchUp Campus, trusting the team won’t be holding back, saving juicy tidbits only for those willing to travel to Vancouver. What do you think? Safe bet??
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I built a passive house and have lived in it with my family for a long time. I sold my car and ride my bike to work, …, I use 100% green electricity for more than a decade, …
All in all, I probably have a pleasingly good ecological footprint, which I like to dampen a bit with a 3D Basecamp every few years. It’s an experience I regularly rave about in the meantime.
Besides trying to take the joy out of the event for others, what specific actions are you taking like this?
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I’m looking forward to seeing all of you at Basecamp in Vancouver. I don’t have to travel very far, but I would if it were required, because it’s important to me to take the opportunity to be present with other people with whom I share a connection. See you there!
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What a great, witty, chat… thanks for bringing up the idea of the irony of sustainable building conventions being attended by people who (mostly) fly there.
Not sure your tone helped bring people onside tho pal … seemed a little heavy handed.
Not that I am suggesting a passive aggressive approach instead … hate that…
On a slight tangent, I wonder how the COP26 attendees are travelling to Glasgow in Scotland these coming weeks, here in the UK… I know my mate who is going will be almost without doubt taking the train … coz she can… but I very much doubt many others will.
We all absolutely must do our part and seriously ask ourselves about our own footprint, on this one, limited and finitely resourced, precious, perhaps unique planet, or we really are f***ed … it’s not easy…
Peace brothers and sisters 
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This need not be a pissing contest, on cereal or otherwise, but you asked so I’ll deliver.
- ~10 year old off-grid, with ~1500 watts solar (for those who don’t know, that is very small, like we blow the whole house breaker with a food processor if the sun isn’t shining
) - Passive solar and wood stove hot water.
- Work from home as much as possible
- Ride a bike when possible and practical (winters and rural)
- Hybrid when possible and practical. Will go to electric or plug-in hybrid when I upgrade solar that can handle it.
- Rebuilding 1930’s house; DER hoping to get it to net-zero with passive and PV solar, and ground sourced heat pump.
- My time (and $) is better spent on these and other projects, most specifically helping others do the same or similar.
- A ton of fun and great energy working with others of similar charitable mindset to help yet others head in the same direction.
- Last times I flew: to visit relatives 2000 miles away, 6 years ago, and to a relatives funeral 1000 miles away, 4 years ago. Probably 20 years before that. Wouldn’t normally fly but time didn’t allow otherwise.
Still not doing enough…a pebble in the ocean alone.
Of course COP26 is a carbon disaster, if you look at just the getting there and back. Greta anyone?? WWGD? But at least it is indeed intended for the greater good. I’d do that online as well, because it is still likely going to be a lot of hot air, empty promises, and magical thinking, but it’s the best we got so…
Agreed; passive-aggressive, sarcasm, self or otherwise dismissive humor, doesn’t help. Any suggestions regarding tone is welcome. Silence is not.
Indeed,
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Hot air… what an apt expression when discussing global warming (or climate weirding, climate chaos etc etc…)
on another side tangent. I remember seeing the Guardian post an article on anthropogenic climate change, whilst alongside it - on the facing page - it ran a competition to win a free holiday in the Maldives…
Depends on, among many other things, the popularity of the application. I expect that the Gmail web site consumes a lot more energy that this forum, for example.
can you give me a link to what 3D Basecamp is?
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This is a bad time to be travelling folks. This is a good time to be creating opportunities to gather online, and not in person, especially in Canada. While I , as a Canadian, absolutely appreciate including us as a destination, now is definitely not the time to be travelling about and mixing us all up together.
I think anyone thinking about planning a large scale event like this should be looking at 2024, and not before for live in person events. We don’t know what’s in store.
What we DO know, is that more and more options are becoming available, and technologies are improving by leaps and bounds to accommodate gathering online. And what a better time to exercise what we can do to make these spaces with Sketchup itself.
I’m glad I stumbled on this post, because most of my sketchup work is done for various VR platforms (Mozilla Hubs, Altspace, Sansar, to name a few). All of those I mentioned do not require a VR headset and be visited directly from your browser - AS WELL as having the option of using a VR headset.
If you check out the gallery post I made today, you’ll see some of my examples.
It’s a good time for VR. We really should use it for the advantage is gives us right now instead of having large gatherings indoors.
Here is a conference space I made for VRTO (virtual reality toronto ontario), which is a VR conference that used to be physical, but is no longer. This is just one example of the many large scale gatherings that VR has seen in the last two years in response to the health crisis we’re facing.
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