The math is pretty poor in this article. Information and Communication Tech represents only 3% of global carbon emissions, and most of that is from giant server farms. This other article states that the embodied CO2 in a cellphone is roughly equivalent to 1kg of beef. That's like three steaks. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/20... The bigger emissions problems around electricity generation a…
We should bless our lucky stars the headline isn't "Apple Phones Are Killing The Planet...".
Seems like the easiest fix would be to mandate the same charging cable for all phones (no dongles) and user replaceable batteries that require no tools to change. With those two simple tweaks it would be much easier to keep a phone for 3 or more years. My google pixel seems like it could easily last for many years with it's quad core, 128GB storage, 4GB ram, and 2560x1440 display. Lets be honest, for most uses that's…
Also mandate upgradable software. I feel that outdated software becomes an issue way before dead batteries for most phones on the market. Most vendors don't seem to care much about software upgrades, especially on the lower end, and not all devices are supported by LineageOS / postmarketOS and co. I'm not even talking about (ok, technically, I am) how hard and scary it is to install alternative firmware on smartphones: unsupported rooting process that can brick your device, loss of your data while rooting, unsigned binaries distributed by unknown third-parties, broken warranty by using unsupported firmware… Vendors should be forced to sell either hardware that can be used with third-party software, or harware and software that is guaranteed to be updated for more than “up until the next shinny new device is out”.
Maybe a refund for consumers plus a collection fee for institutions would be an incentive to recycle, for both individuals and businesses. Your phone breaks, you take it to the supermarket, they give you $10, they send in the IMEI or some other unique code and get $12 in return.
Recycling just isn't a substitute; it's far less effective. You're supposed to reduce, reuse, and then , if neither is possible, recycle... in that order.
Recycling a phone can mean reusing many of its components for repairing other phones (as part of the fourth R: refurbishing).
The math is pretty poor in this article. Information and Communication Tech represents only 3% of global carbon emissions, and most of that is from giant server farms. This other article states that the embodied CO2 in a cellphone is roughly equivalent to 1kg of beef. That's like three steaks. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/20... The bigger emissions problems around electricity generation a…
A decent proportion of those server farms exist to meet demand from smartphone users and serve their ecosystems.
The math is pretty poor in this article. Information and Communication Tech represents only 3% of global carbon emissions, and most of that is from giant server farms. This other article states that the embodied CO2 in a cellphone is roughly equivalent to 1kg of beef. That's like three steaks. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/20... The bigger emissions problems around electricity generation a…
But manufacturing a smartphone involves a lot of transportation and electricity, doesn't it?
Our focus should also be on cutting energy spendings & reducing transportation, and stop buying new phones (and laptops and tvs etc..) every now and then sure will help, will it not?
Seems like the easiest fix would be to mandate the same charging cable for all phones (no dongles) and user replaceable batteries that require no tools to change. With those two simple tweaks it would be much easier to keep a phone for 3 or more years. My google pixel seems like it could easily last for many years with it's quad core, 128GB storage, 4GB ram, and 2560x1440 display. Lets be honest, for most uses that's…
Chinese smartphone sales have dropped dramatically this year. Mostly as smartphones have reached a point where upgrading cost vs return is no longer worth it for many. I really wanted Googles modular phone to be a successful but it died very quickly even before release otherwise that would have been a great way to upgrade parts without disposing old phones and creating waste.
If you think that's a shame, do check out Fairphone [0]. It's not completely modular, but it's trivial to replace the battery, screen and camera's without tools. See also their spare parts shop [1], all of which you can replace by yourself.
the planet != the environment. the planet will survive, it will just suffocate us and some other life will take over.
Luckily everybody reading this article will still understand that the article is being alarming about the effect on us as a species and not about the actual existence of the planet on its own.
the planet != the environment. the planet will survive, it will just suffocate us and some other life will take over.
Luckily everybody reading this article will still understand that the article is being alarming about the effect on us as a species and not about the actual existence of the planet on its own.
The math is pretty poor in this article. Information and Communication Tech represents only 3% of global carbon emissions, and most of that is from giant server farms. This other article states that the embodied CO2 in a cellphone is roughly equivalent to 1kg of beef. That's like three steaks. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/20... The bigger emissions problems around electricity generation a…
Exactly. The amount of energy spent on heating and cooling is huge. Then it's transportation and agriculture. Then somewhere far behind is the whole Internet and efficient electronic devices.
I use the same argument when it comes to bitcoin. That stuff is so tiny in our profiler. Sane thing to do is to optimize the slowest functions.
Recycling just isn't a substitute; it's far less effective. You're supposed to reduce, reuse, and then , if neither is possible, recycle... in that order.
Recycling a phone can mean reusing many of its components for repairing other phones (as part of the fourth R: refurbishing).
In reality recycling a phone means shipping it to some poor country where it is burned in an open fire to recover some of the metals.