What impact do electronics have on environment?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rachael
  • Start date Start date
R

Rachael

Guest
How is the use of electronic devices (computers, lighting, etc.), harming our environment?
Ooh. I see, it's not the waves that are really effected the environment...

Thank You! :)
 
I don't think that elecromagntic waves (I think that's what you point to) are harming our environment to a noticeable degree; but the use people make of electronic devices sure has an influence on our environment. If for the good or the bad, maybe the next generation can tell. Take navigation systems, for instance: Nowadays, you use them to find the fastest route from A to B via C. In the future, maybe these data can be used for "traffic shaping", i.e. to direct travel off from the main routes to roads less traveld (which I would find desirable), or for planning and building even more and bigger roads from A to B where the main traffic runs (which I would find undesirable).

So in my opinion, electronics give us a good chance to make something reasonable of it and even help protect the environment. The technology is at hand; the question is: How will we use it?
 
The growing complexity of integrated circuits and increasing component density place higher requirements for raw material and clean room standards, which demand significant amounts of energy. In spite of these developments, semiconductor facilities managed to reduce their energy intensity measured per product unit. At the same time, the impact of increasing circuit integration on upstream life cycle stages, such as chemical manufacturing, is not clear. Due to a lack of data, most of the existing LCA studies do not include chemical-related processes into their system boundaries, which leads to an incomplete picture of semiconductor environmental aspects. The increasing material purity requirements may contribute to shifting the centre of manufacturing-related environmental impacts from circuit fabrication to raw material production stages. This article points to insufficient knowledge of environmental issues related to ultra-pure chemical manufacturing. The problem is illustrated by an example of energy demands for the silicon chain and wet chemicals. The paper discusses the feasibility of using material price as a proxy for production energy intensity and proposes a framework for collecting process related energy data. The author suggests that by mapping the patterns of chemical usage and focusing on high-grade materials consumed in large volumes it is possible to reduce data collection efforts and improve the existing energy estimates.
 
Really they are but so slowly it is not really noticable. For instance, the fires caused by faulty electronics.Also, there is the substances put out by electrical devices, depending on what device it is. Also, there are a lot more electromagnetic waves in the air and who really knows how harmful or not they are. But, PLEASE do not take my electricity away. I will go bonkers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Back
Top