Here's your Earth Hour moment

BANGALORE, INDIA: Well, making friends is just a click away. Absolutely, a reflection of the pace of modern technology and that makes it hard to imagine its potential to pollute the world. Think about it. Every time you log in, you leave carbon footprints.

Technically speaking, you emit carbon dioxide through the fossil fuels which are burned to power computers and servers. So, each time you send a friend request, an email, share pictures through mails or just browse the Net, you are contributing to global warming.

It's reinforced in the report in The Economist which says that emissions from data centers and services over the Internet will grow four-fold by 2020 making its carbon footprint even larger than that of aviation by some estimates. Our ever increasing obsession with computing devices may deny the next generation a healthy and happy life.

If you don't want to face the curse of slow genocide, it's never too late to be a responsibile individual to make the Earth a liveable place for years to come. 

That essentially requires some simple measures. Experts tell you to limit your computer time and shut it down or put it into sleep mode when not using it. You know for sure that it is not everything. It's mandatory for internet companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions annually.

To unite people to spread awareness on global warming, some individuls have teamed up for the Earth Hour campaign, which is a global event made possible by teams in 135 countries turning lights off locally for one hour. If you want to show your commitment to the planet, switch off your lights and computers on March 31 from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm. That's not all. Then, go beyond the Hour to commit to lasting action for the cleaner and green planet.

(Illustrations by Balaji Ramesh)