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Manufacturing 1 PC Takes 1.8 Tons Of Raw Material
remy writes "Although most of it (1.5 metric tons) is water, a study from the United Nations University details the raw materials used in the manufacture of a PC and 17" CRT. That's an incredible environmental cost per PC, and a very strong argument for trying to leverage older equipment, not to mention upgrading rather than replacing."
For anyone in the Bay Area you might want to the check out the Alameda Computer Resource Center (ACCRC). They recycle just about anything electronic, but they also load up Linux on old computers and give them to schools, non-profits, and developing nations. Very cool organization. Located in Berkeley. www.accrc.org
Tim Smith - Ramblings from Nerd Land
From the article: ...Williams suggests redesigning network cards to allow the PC to go to sleep and then wake it should there be any important network traffic."
"Too many computers at companies are prevented from entering their standby mode by LAN traffic, which keeps them awake and consuming power even while they are not in use, he said.
Hasn't that already been done in the form of Wake-on-LAN?
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." -Albert Einstein
Actually, you should run the tap in any place with older plumbing. Some study showed that most of the lead leached into the standing water in the pipes is concentrated in the first water coming from the tap.
For me, it is a dilema. Between an upgrade, you get a more efficient hardware at similar price-energy ratio, thus more energy "friendly".
But with these, you get headache junking old hardware, and suffocate our habitat.
Consider this option, Computers for Africa
A similar report on BBC, Computers 'must become greener
Hey, that's my password you are typing
The BBC is running a report from one of the UKs regional recycling centers
"It says a PC uses more than ten times its weight in fossil fuels and chemicals to manufacture."
"One of the ways of extending the life of a computer is to make it more easy to upgrade, rather than the current trend constantly replacing them for a better model as soon new versions become available."
The world has plenty of fresh water - it is just not in the right places, and it is very wexpensive to shift. Wateraid and similar organisations are trying to get relatively small amounts of clean water to places where there is very little water indeed. By contrast, Canada has thousands of times more fresh water thanit will ever need for drinking and agriculture. Aside from the pollution question, ther is no harm in Canada "wasting" a bit of its fresh water. The same water consumption would be criminal in Namibia.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
We're not talking about doing the dishes here - the manufacture of microprocessors require huge amounts of water to wash the residue off of the wafers during the photolithography process.y t_1117.htmo file/read_profile/1,1990,NDUtL0FJR0Vudmlyb25tZW50Y WwvSW5kdXN0cnlfSXNzdWVzLUluZHVzdHJpZXMgd2l0aCBFbnZ pcm9ubWVudGFsIElzc3Vlcw==,00.html
Like darkroom photography, this involves the use of potentially noxious chemicals.
Now, the report is quite sketchy on what all that water is used for and that is, IMO, a glaring omission. But, suffice to say that the water leaving a chip fab probably won't be classed as safe drinking water.
Here are some links:
http://www.svtc.org/media/articles/2003/benzene_n
http://home.aigonline.com/AIGEnvironmental/ind_pr
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
A metric ton - which is what he explicitly said - is 1000kg. So 240kg is near as dammit 1/4 of a ton.
It is too bad. That every New PC I find uses more power then my old one.
My 486 150watt Power Supply
My P200 250watt Power Supply
A P4 350watt Power Supply
Unless you upgrade from a PC to a laptop you don't really have a a good saving in power.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
This is such a non-story. What is the point of the study?
The computer manufacturing business is one of the most cut throat businesses on the planet. Every tiny bit of slack in the process must be eliminated in order to stay competitive. This means that they must use as few raw materials as possible. Energy consumption is minimized. The part count is kept to a minimum. There is as little waste as possible.
Let's talk about some of the positive impacts of computer use. I use mine with VPN to handle work for customers without traveling. This results in fewer plane rides, rental cars, and sitting in traffic. In my professional work I use computers to monitor environmental impact at manufacturing and industrial plants. I also use them to help make the processes more efficient which lessens the environmental impact of the activities.
Computers are also used to mange traffic in large cities. They are used to manage public transportation facilities. I've done work for logistics companies that manage the shipment of goods to reduce fuel consumption, lessening the environmental impact of these activities.
Let's face it. Computers are the most valuable modern tool that we have developed. The impact of manufacturing one is more than offset by all of the positive impacts of their use.
Worrying about the environmental impact of producing this valuable tool when we already know how competitive it is to manufacture them and how efficiently it is already done seems really silly.
Perhaps we should do a study of the impact of all of the CO2 that is emitted during worthless UN debates. Certainly it is impacting global warming in an adverse fashion.
Hey UN, stop worrying about inane crap like this. Last I heard there was some shit going down in Haiti that you might want to concentrate on. While you're at it, Kim Jong Il is starving his people. I'm sure there are a lot of other areas of much higher impact that you could concentrate on. You do some really good work out there. This type of study isn't helping though.
Wow, I doubted your numbers as first but they look like they're right. (1.5 tons of water ~= 1.36 m3)
Water is pretty damn heavy.
"1.5 tons of water is about the same amount of water that you use taking a shower or a bath."
Actually, er, no. My shower head is a 2.5 gpm water saver, but let's consider an old fashioned 6 gpm water waster mega fountain. Now, I like long showers, but more than 10 minutes? I don't think so. So 6 gpm times 10 minutes is 60 gallons, or 229 kg - a far cry from 1500 kg!
Now, since I am using only 2.5 gpm and it has an instant on-off button on it, I only need maybe 50 kg even for a 10 minute shower.
BTW, the water saver shower heads provide a very satisfying output.
1m^3 has a mass of exactly 1 Tonne (Metric) by definition
1m^3 = 1.102 Short (US) Tons
1m^3 = 0.984 Long (Old UK) Tons
I'm amazed to see ppl on /. surprised at the weight of water. Over here in Europe where we use the metric system it's common knowledge 1000Kg=1Tonne=1m^3 as it's so easy to remember.
My spelling isn't bad, I'm evolving the language