TreeHugger Picks: Tips for Shutting Down and Turning Off
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 03.23.07
World Shutdown Day is this weekend, and with it comes a good opportunity to prove that you aren't addicted to your computer by shutting it off and leaving it off all day. In addition to taking a break and doing something other than emailing, surfing or blogging, Shutdown Day also has the potential to reduce your energy use and to quantify the good that unplugging can do for you every now and then. In celebration of the day, here are some of our picks for taking the shutdown idea a little bit further.
1) Unplug your cellphone charger, or, better yet, take your phone off the grid.
2) Go for broke and take an energy vacation for the day: no TV or electronics, artificial lights or driving; you can take it as far as you want.
3) If a full-on turn-off is too much, take a minute and learn more about the dangers of phantom power and get some tips for reducing it.
4) Before shutting down, take a minute to learn more how to be energy-independent, or read a book about it after you pull the plug.
5) When you come back online, get some tips to help reduce your computer's energy use to make it more planet-friendly while it is turned on.
World Shut Down Day seems like a very cool experiment. I'm curious to see how many people will actually be able to disconnect themselves from the world. Every day it's getting increasingly harder and harder to cut down computer use, as it is becoming the center of our worlds. Can you even put a number on how much energy this will save? How about a bi-monthly shut down day? What kind of impact would that have?