To cut the carbon, programmers are cutting the code. Call it green programming.
One of my class mates posted this to the forum about sustainable software design, and I think it is a real eye opener. Obviously the efforts of Van Kooten are impressive. His refactored WP plug-in for Mailchimp, which sends 20KB less data, is used by 2 million websites so that his code trimming reduced the world's monthly CO2 output by 59,000 kilograms, roughly the equivalent to flying from New York to Amsterdam and back 85 times. But the article also shows how we can contribute, if we and everyone in Ireland modify our behaviours and send less thank you emails and stop emailing people within speaking distance ”it would cut 16 tons of carbon each year, equal to 22 round-trip flights between New York and London.” Literally every little helps.