In an announcement that sent shockwaves across the world late last night, a consortium of high profile technology and business leaders have delivered a signed petition simultaneously to multiple national and extra-national governmental agencies including the US Senate, EU Council and CCP's National People's Congress to urge them to turn off the Internet of Things for an entire week once a month in a bid to combat climate change...

The official petition, which is being dubbed the 'slight reset' has over a hundred signatures of influential and powerful CEOs and is reported to have been largely driven by Bill Gates, whose company Microsoft could lose a significant amount of revenue if the plan goes ahead.

However, Gates, a well know philanthropist, is apparently prepared to risk denting his earning potential in a bid to save the world. A source close to Gates said 'Bill really just wants to make a difference and he already has his team working on bio-internet applications that could bridge the gap during each month's 'slight reset.'. 

"The idea is that we can harness some of mother Earth's natural resources as organic data warehouses, during the planned downtime, and utilise these to re-upload the missing data after each reset," the source added. 

It is not clear exactly what organic data warehouses may look like although a clue may be in a small Scottish company Gates recent acquired EcoLokate who have a number of patents registered in the area of bio-sonar data transmission. Notably, in 2012 Dr. Ewan Nether-Beleefis, founder and CEO of EcoLokate published a report in leading journal Science on an exciting experiment in which he and his team completed the first successful transmission of data from one species to another via bio-sonar telemetry utilising a bat and a dolphin.

"Simply by turning off the IoT for a few days once a month, we could extend the life expectancy of our planet by 42% long term

The data transfer, which was a txt file containing the phrase 'So long and thanks for all the fish' was heralded at the time as a potential mechanism for wide-scale bio-internet potential, although many questioned the veracity of the work. 

Spokesperson for the Slight Reset collective, Prof. Ima Fulovitz gave the following statement from their home in Springfield, Oregon, USA. 

"The aim of this group is simple. We are not looking to take away your internet, not at all. In fact, during the slight reset primary internet will remain in place. It is just the internet of things (IoT) that we are pushing to be shut down. And remember, this is only a temporary pause each month to allow the planet to simply catch its breath.

"Many people don't realise that every single nano-transaction on the IoT creates a fractional outlet of Carbon Dioxide. While it is only a trace amount each time, given that there are 22 Billion devices all over the world, the impact of this soon stacks up.

"Our recommendation, based on hard, factual, real science numbers is that simply by turning off the IoT for a few days once a month, we could extend the life expectancy of our planet by 42% in the long term. If we don't do it the Earth could potentially become uninhabitable by 15:32 CST on October 19 this year. 

"We need to act now. Yes it will be a pain having to turn the lights on with our hands and of course we'll all miss our morning chat with our AI enabled toaster, but its' worth it just once a month to stop the oceans boiling."

Of course, for the field service industry which has recently only just reached a point of mass adoption and adjusted to a new connected world this news could be hugely damaging. 

"I really think that all sides of this conversation need to be considered before we make any rash judgments," urged Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief of Field Service News. 

"Important people need to look at every piece of information here, starting with a close look at the date." 

Further reading:

• Read more about bio-sonar telemetry and its potential in field service here 
• Read more about the Slight Reset here
• Read more about challenges of the IoT and the Environment here 
• Double check what day this was published here