Let's Life Cycle Analyze Everything

Consumer products already undergo some testing, generally to meet governmental regulations or a recognized set of standards.  This testing is done to ensure that the product attains a level of quality and does not pose an unacceptable risk of injuring the user.  But there is a risk from these products that is being overlooked: the environmental risk.

Some companies perform life cycle analyses of their products, attempting to quantify all environmental impacts of a product from cradle to grave.  A life cycle analysis examines, among other things, the environmental impact of the following phases in a product's life:

• Extraction and transport of materials used to make the product
• Manufacture and transport of the product
• Use of the product, including maintenance, repair, and storage
• Disposal of the product by consumer
• Destruction of the product through landfilling, incineration, or recycling

Life cycle analysis can reveal surprising facts about how a product impacts the environment.  Unfortunately, life cycle analysis is not widespread among industry, and the companies that practice it usually do not do so on a regular basis.

As the American economy recovers and our manufacturing sector is hopefully renewed, it would make sense to adopt industry-wide life cycle analysis practices now--not to wait until we're "ready."  If all products were to undergo life cycle analysis, the vast amount of information, processed by our vast computing power, can reveal areas of improvement that can be addressed in methods more easy and efficient than traditional methods of environmental remediation such as emissions reduction.  The life cycle analysis data can be made available to the public and can lead to a new, product-level movement in environmental stewardship.

As consumers, we all buy stuff, keep it in our house, and dispose of it in our environment.  It would be useful to know how everything, from our ballpoint pens to our plasma TVs, affect the environment from cradle to grave.

The Wattage of Life

As heard on the "Cities" episode of the WNYC Radiolab podcast at about the 38-minute mark, the estimated daily wattage of the following people:

• Someone just lying in bed all day: 90 watts
• A hunter-gatherer in a New Zealand tribe: 240 watts
• A typical American who commutes and uses common household appliances, including a computer: 11,000 watts! That's more daily energy than a blue whale requires.

Eighty percent of Americans live in cities, and cities are just growing and growing like insatiable monsters.

But, because cities are such dense producers and markets of science and innovation, if anyone will solve humanity's energy problems, it will probably be a city-dweller.

Sonamu PC

The Sonamu PC is a system comprising a computer case, power supply, and power module that automatically shuts off power to peripherals when they're not in use rather than let them remain on standby power.



From the video and comments, I believe the only vital component of the power-saving system is the power module that fits next to the power supply of the PC. It seems that you do not have to use Sonamu's case or power supply.

If you're building a PC and want an easy power-saving option, this is something to consider.

Games are the Romance Section for Men

In the Femininity in Games episode of the Moving Pixels podcast, it was mentioned that very few games with female lead characters allow the player to pursue a romance. I guess this is because the gamers are still predominantly male.

I've played some male-centric games that feature romance, such as Riviera: The Promised Land, Sakura Wars: So Long My Love, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and a few Final Fantasy and Persona games. I've noticed that they portray romance much differently from romantic movies aimed at women, such as Notting Hill and The Notebook.

In romantic films, the man and woman usually have a rocky path toward becoming a serious couple. There will be initial rejection, foot-stomping, door-slamming, crying, and misunderstandings. It all works out in the end, but the two may not be truly together until the movie's parting shot. So women enjoy a romance filled with uncertainty, turbulence, and even long periods of isolation for both the male and female leads.

In games that feature romance, the romance is portayed in almost the opposite fashion. It builds slowly but surely. As the chapters pass, the male and female characters will have more frequent, more meaningful conversations. They usually stick together and don't experience a major falling-out. Their relationship is made stronger by the dangers they face in the game, and their mutual assistance leads to mutual emotional dependence. So, if men are the main audience for games, then men enjoy a journey of stable, dependable togetherness.

I believe men enjoy romance in their entertainment as much as women, but games are better than films in portraying romances that men enjoy.

There is a similarity between romance movies and the "harem romances" of certain Japanese roleplaying games such as the aforementioned Riviera and Sakura Wars. In both, the lead character is faced with a difficult choice of suitors. She or he may bounce from one romantic interest to another, not sure who to be with. In the end, though, the lead makes a choice, and the movie or game rejoices in it, celebrating it as the best choice.

Turning Off the Lights in Alan Wake

Chad Concelmo, one of the more colorful personalities at Destructoid, admits that he turns off the lights in rooms when he leaves them in Alan Wake. It would be advantageous to leave them on, but...

"Every time I left a room in Alan Wake I turned off the lights because ... well ... ... I wanted to save electricity."

You're doing the right thing, Chad. Turning off the lights in Alan Wake makes your TV image less bright, so you really are saving energy, maybe.

Twenty-Five Percent Reduction Rate

You know the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle. It's good to recycle, but it's better to reuse if possible and far better to reduce by not generating products in the first place.

According to recent news, 48% of the PC games purchased in 2009 were sold online rather than at retail. If one can assume that those games would have been purchased at retail in lieu of digital distribution, then digital distribution has allowed the PC game industry to achieve a nearly 50% reduction rate!

That assumption, of course, is faulty. Because digital distribution increases convenience and enables impulse shopping, many of those sales would likely not have occurred at all at retail. Furthermore, the decline of PC games's retail presence over the years forces some sales to be digital anyway. So let's slash that figure in half. Even a 25% reduction rate is great. That's a 25% reduction in the materials and energy used to publish, distribute, and sell PC games.

The console games industry may still rely mostly on retail sales. But consoles' memory size grows to allow more games to be stored in memory rather than on disc. Also, consoles' online shops offer new, download-only games that are quite popular and increasing in sophistication. Perhaps the next generation of consoles will achieve parity between online and retail sales.

Volkswagen's Fun Theory

I learned from Andrew Sullivan's blog about Volkswagen's initiative for motivating positive change through fun innovations. They've produced a few neat inventions and invite you to submit your own ideas for the chance to win an award.

I think that by adopting digital distribution, the gaming industry has already made progress in this field even though that was not the intent. Gamers want their fun; digital distribution gives them that fun more quickly and conveniently than retail and mail-order distribution. Game publishers and distributors, in turn, spend less on packaging and shipping. The benefits extend to the environment as an afterthought, but they are there.

One of Volkswagen's inventions is, in fact, a simple arcade game. I'm trying to think of other ways that games can be used to encourage environmental stewardship.