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| Prof David Karoly - wonders about the pollution costs associated with servers supporting NBN-like networks. |
But the better NBN would not cost the taxpayers more, the
ALP promises in a policy released on Monday.
The opposition pledges Labor would cap total funding to the
NBN at A$57 billion, compared with the latest government estimate of the NBN’s
rollout costing up to $56 billion.
It says the public equity contribution – $29.5 billion –
would be the same regardless of who wins the election, and that “there will be
no impact on the budget” from the policy changes proposed.
Read the view of a Professorial Fellow from the University of Canberra, Michelle Grattan, on The Conversation - "Labor would upgrade NBN to fibre to the premises.”
(On the surface, the
idea that Australians should happily embrace a serious upgrade to the National
Broadband Network (NBN) as it makes total sense with fibre to the home/business
ending the need for energy-intense travel as relationships – business or
personal could be enhanced/maintained via such things as Skype or video
conferencing – and much of the infrastructure presently in demand could be
replaced by a rich, fast and sophisticated internet service.
The broadband
promise is not however, as green and clean as many imagine as only recently University of Melbourne’s earth scientist, Professor David Karoly, pointed out that server
farms supporting much of the activity permitted by such things as the NBN use
so much energy that they are quickly becoming among the largest of world’s
carbon dioxide polluters.
It’s a dilemma, one
hand the NBN can play a significant role in reducing emissions and yet on the
other, it is a devil in disguise as it can also worsen emissions – Robert McLean.)
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