Overview

How the tools of information technology can support environmental sustainability by tackling problems that span broad scales of time, space, and complexity. Environmental issues often span long periods of time, far-flung areas, and labyrinthine layers of complexity. In Greening through IT, Bill Tomlinson investigates how the tools and techniques of information technology (IT) can help us tackle environmental problems at such vast scales. Tomlinson describes theoretical, technological, and social aspects of a growing interdisciplinary approach to sustainability, “Green IT,” offering both a human-centered framework for understanding Green IT systems and specific examples and case studies of Green IT in action. Tomlinson descrobes many efforts toward sustainability supported by IT—from fishers in India who maximized the sales potential of their catch by coordinating their activities with mobile phones to the installation of smart meters that optimize electricity use in California households—and offers three detailed studies of specific research projects that he and his colleagues have undertaken: EcoRaft, an interactive museum exhibit to help children learn principles of restoration ecology; Trackulous, a set of web-based tools with which people can chart their own environmental behavior; and GreenScanner, an online system that provides access to environmental-impact reports about consumer products. Taken together, these examples illustrate the significant environmental benefits that innovations in information technology can enable.

Full Product Details

9780262013932

Table of Contents

Reviews

Greening through IT provides timely insights into the fusion underway between those within the environmental and policy fields, focused on sustainable development, and those in IT with the interest and training to harness all manner of information technology in pursuit of sustainability. Tomlinson explores many examples and uses a cogent narrative to demonstrate that the fusion is emerging, albeit, with far too little recognition and appreciation. This book makes good reading for techno-skeptics who undervalue the contributions IT has and is continuing to make and for techno-optimists who will learn through this comprehensive treatment how far the fusion has come. --Daniel A. Mazmanian, Bedrosian Chair in Governance and environmental policy scholar, The School of Policy, Planning, and Development, University of Southern California, coeditor of Toward Sustainable Communities I strongly recommend Greening through IT. This is a timely and extremely valuable book that covers the environmental systems. When about 60% of the world population is currently facing malnutrition and when it is projected that in 30 to 40 years oil reserves will be depleted, this will have a major impact on food production and other environmental problems worldwide. --David Pimentel, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University Green is the new digital. IT is the macroscope needed to understand it. What feels counterintuitive at the beginning of this book is obvious by the end. --Nicholas Negroponte, Founding Chairman Emeritus, MIT Media Lab, Founder and Chairman, One Laptop per Child

"""Green is the new digital. IT is the macroscope needed to understand it. What feels counterintuitive at the beginning of this book is obvious by the end."" Nicholas Negroponte, Founding Chairman Emeritus, MIT Media Lab, Founder and Chairman, One Laptop per Child"

Author Information

Bill Tomlinson is Associate Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, and a Researcher at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available