Well, we all watched with interest as world leaders gathered for the G8 summit and settled down to see how little they could get away with this time. Collectively the G8 countries, which make up 13% of the world's population, are responsible for around 43% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
It's taken George Bush quite a while to comprehend the magnitude of climate change, but he's still managing to brush it under the Whitehouse carpet. By the end of G8 he had promised to ‘seriously consider' (also known as, do naff all) making substantial long term cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. That's like saying "I'm like totally going to mull over giving up smoking" while lighting a fag. (Editor's Note: Chella is British in case you have been living under a rock for the past five years, and that's how they say cigarette over there. Just to avoid a Grey's Anatomy incident.)
Canada isn't doing much better on the emissions front and the whole getting the bigger picture thing. Having walked away from Kyoto, America's more popular cousins have scored a few black marks on the eco front with emissions being above what they should be by 2012. It has refused to curb emission, intent on excavating oil for export to the US.
In short G8 was a bit of a sham and a depressing non-event, with things on your side of the pond moving very much in the wrong direction. This got me to thinking about how us gamers can make a difference and lead by example.
At home with my boyfriend in deepest Somerset, things have been taking an altogether greener turn. This Sunday we are wending our way to Glastonbury Festival, which is a huge music and performing arts event in the Somerset countryside. It's a pretty big deal and usually makes the news when it rains because grown-ups are amused to see teenagers and weirdy beardies tramping through the mud, so that they can sit and home going, "now, where's the fun in that – heh he."
My boyfriend has been contributing art to the festival for the last five years and is something of a Glasto expert. This year he wanted to perfect the building of his solar shower, which involved the purchase of two 50 watt solar panels. After custom building a tripod allowing constant tilting towards the sun, he began to think that we should use these panels all year round to power more than just the shower at Glastonbury.
Playchums, I think you know where I'm going with this one. Solar powered gaming is the future!
No, really it is.
The Energy Saving Trust claims that CO2 emissions from the generation of energy required to keep games consoles on standby amounts to 390,000 tonnes annually. That's a lot of CO2 people and that's just the UK, so imagine how many tonnes are being produced in the US. The focus at the moment is on trying to reduce your carbon footprint in small manageable ways, so that you don't have to become plastic-shoe-wearing paragons of all things eco-friendly.
Last year DXgaming.com conducted tests to measure the energy consumption of games consoles. Sadly, they were carried out before the launch of the Wii and the PS3, so the 360 is the only next gen machine included. However, the results were interesting and give us gamers some food for thought.
Unsurprisingly, the Xbox 360 is the most energy hungry machine, using 145 watts, just when sitting idle at the dashboard. Compare this to the 4 watts of the original PlayStation and you can see that our all singing, all dancing graphics and processors come at a price. Even the last generation Dreamcast uses just 17 watts, which is astounding considering the Xbox uses 61W and just one generation later this more than doubles.
Tests have also revealed that it costs approximately $20 in energy a year just to have the Xbox 360 on, including energy leakage when it's switched off. Energy leakage is the old standby issue that plagues modern consumer electronics like televisions. Although it looks off, it's actually sucking as much as 80% of the energy it uses when it's on. This happens with consoles too, although not to the same degree as TVs.
The new wireless controllers and internal clocks mean our consoles are still draining energy unless they're pulled out at the plug. And if they're still draining energy after being unplugged then I'd call Ghost Busters or sell the script idea to Steven Spielberg.
DX Gaming figures revealed that the PS2 and 360 both drain 2W even when they're off. Not only is this costing us gamers money, but it's adding to the size of our carbon footprint. The bottom line is we've got to start switching our consoles off at the wall, or pulling the plug out, rather than relying on the "switch of console" command. With 360 ownership alone in the millions, imagine if they were all switched off – the collective energy saving would be significant.
The only way to save more energy and get completely free gaming power is to go solar (or wind). Our 50W panels are hooked up to a solar battery, which is in turn hooked up to an inverter that allows us to plug things in – it's like a portable eco-friendly socket. This means, we can effectively run the 360 on solar power, costing us nothing and also decreasing CO2 emissions.
Last weekend I ran my sewing machine off the solar panels and I have to say it makes you feel all giddy and warm inside to think that it's a completely clean source of energy.
The truth of the matter is, gaming is pretty much an environmentally unfriendly pastime. It involves rampant consumption of power hungry consumer electronics, which leads to huge amounts of waste, as we discard one machine for the next. Add to this the constant purchase of games, packaged in plastic cases and we've got ourselves a reason to hang our heads in shame.
Short of beating ourselves across the back with switches and wearing hair shirts, eco-activists can't realistically expect all gamers to abandon our love of games in the name of all things green. What we can do is think about how many consoles and games we really need to purchase and whether we really need to leave that game on pause while we nip to the shops. We can unplug the machines when they're not in use and put pressure on the industry as a whole to develop future consoles with energy efficiency in mind.
But of course, solar power is the only way to really play with a clear conscience – now that's what I call ethical gaming.
Most played: DOA4
Most wanted: Splinter Cell: Conviction