I am a whore for electrical appliances. If I had to go camping (in a tent), I don’t know how long I’d cope before the need for electricity would take over my senses, causing an inhumane fit. I live and breathe my mobile phone, computer, Internet and music. I am also what some might call a New Man who is in touch with his feminine side - I take pride in my appearance so would struggle without a hair drier being handy.

With that in mind, it has become quite apparent lately the impact that is happening across the globe with the lack of fossil fuels and excessive use of energy in our daily lifestyle. Polar ice-caps are melting, animals are becoming extinct and many of the World’s landmark cities are destined to be put under water in the next fifty years. As a new father, it is scary to think that my son will live in a world without continents, polar bears and New York. I don’t want that and I think it is finally dawning on the public that we have to do something to reduce our carbon footprints as much and as soon as possible.

Over the last few weeks, I have got particularly anal about the way I live, making considerable changes to my habits and lifestyle.

1. Turn everything off.

Rather than hitting the stand by button, I am turning electrical appliances off at the mains. Every night after working, I will turn my laptop off, hit the power switch on the wall it was plugged in to and turn the wireless router off at the mains. It’s amazing how much electric you can waste. Think of the money you could save too!

2. Use screensavers.

Every computer has a screensaver option. For some unfathomable reason, I turned my screensaver off and not thought about it up until now. Rather than leaving my screen to show some pointless animation, I’ve used the power facilities available and set my computer to turn my monitor off after 1 minute of inactivity. It might have a very slight knock on effect with my productivity rate (not that needs any help) but doesn’t it seem irrelevant when you could be doing your bit for Mother Earth?

3. Use Eco-Friendly Colours

OK, this only really applies to the designers out there but there was a recent study about the energy used to render certain screen colours. Unsurprisingly, the darker colours were more economically friendly than the brighter colours. Think about using them in your designs. It is also another great argument for why dark backgrounds are better for your websites than white backgrounds. If you design or run a highly used website which has a white background, think how much difference you could make just by changing your background colour to black or dark grey.

4. Driving in lower gears.

Not everything revolves around computers. I’ve seen billboard adverts dotted around Walsall and Birmingham about cutting the CO₂ emissions from your car by driving in lower gears and making sure your tyres are fully pumped up. Obviously, you can go one better and use public transport or walk but you can’t get away from the fact that you need to drive occasionally. If you need to, be thoughtful about it.

5. Recycle, recycle, recycle.

As a nation, Brits aren’t particularly good at recycling. We throw away our own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks (source: Recycle Now)! Half the time, it is due to unavailable solutions. Local councils are very slack on adopting decent recycling schemes so the public tend to be extremely frivolous with their waste. If you have a recycling scheme in your area, use it. In Walsall, we are supplied plastic green boxes to accumulate certain recyclable materials. (At the moment, it is restricted to glass bottles and jars, paper and certain types of metal. If you put any non-recyclable material in that box, it is likely the collection people won’t even filter it out. The box will just stay on the ground full. It’s not much of an incentive to try doing your bit). If you don’t have a recycling sheme, it is highly likely there is a local community wreck that you can take your waste to. Use them!

These are just my top five tips for being economically friendly in your every day life. There are loads of other tips you can adopt, you might even want to suggest some below. Just think about the future of our planet and do your bit.

This afternoon I did “something amazing“. I gave blood.

I’ve been meaning to do this for ages but always forgot to register. On a recent visit to the doctors, I noticed a pamphlet for the Give Blood campaign so grabbed a copy, filled out the form there and then and handed it back to the receptionist. Soon after, I had received all the information in the post about giving blood in my area. Not long after that, I received yet another letter confirming my appointment in Solihull so it was easier to get to from work.

I was very impressed by the registration process. It was very efficient and streamlined, something you wouldn’t come to expect from the NHS. It’s a shame I didn’t try using the website for the process as that would make a much more relevant critique for a web developer so if someone out there has had the fortune (or misfortune) of going through the on-line process, let us know how it went.

The main reason for this post is just as a plea to Give Blood. Nothing more, nothing less. There is an enormous feeling of self-respect when you give blood. Personally, I felt quite heroic for doing it. It takes no effort but that pint of blood could save someone’s life.

For some, it probably doesn’t appeal very much. The thought of needles and blood pumping out your veins into a bag isn’t particularly appealing. But just think what a difference you could make.

It’s Red Nose Day this coming Friday which is all about charity (even if it does have a comical feel to it). Coincidentally, it’s a day of wearing red too but don’t let that put you off.

If you’re feeling charitable at the moment, why don’t you pop down to your local station? You could always enrol now to save having to do it when you get there as well. It’s all over within the hour and at the end of it, not only are you treated to some tea and biscuits (surely that’s rewarding enough), you will know that what you have done will help someone in need.

Bottom line? (one last plug…) Give Blood.

Some might find this easy, others might find it really hard. I’m thinking I will fall in to the latter of the two…

On Saturday 24th March 2007, it will be International Shut Down Day. This is an initiative to see how the World would cope if you didn’t touch a computer for a whole day. The main purpose is to realise how much we have to come to depend on our electronic lifestyle, how much we need the Internet and what else you could be doing with your time.

Thankfully, the people behind this experiment have made sure it falls on a Saturday. While it would be hard for most of us (especially on the Web) to go a whole day without computers at work, I’m sure there are millions of people who spend their weekends catching up with emails, talking to friends over IM or whiling away their time on MySpace or YouTube.

It would be an ideal opportunity to get outside and do something that you wouldn’t ordinarily do. Maybe visit family or friends in person, maybe a walk to the local park or beach, a day out - the time is yours. The only requirement is to not go near or turn on your computer. Of course, this includes PDAs but mobile phones are allowed for contacting your friends to arrange something. Just keep it there - don’t touch the Internet!

I’ve said “I Can” to the project and promised myself to avoid my laptop for the entire day. I will be spending time with my wife and baby. I will take them out. At a time when I have stupendous amounts of deliverables required for the ever-nearing financial year close, this could be quite costly. But think of all that electricity saved. Think of how much the family would appreciate some quality time with you. Think of what life was like before the word Google was a household name.