01 Section 3 - Environmental Issues

Question 1

What are the environmental issues of technology?

Answer 1

-we use up natural resources to make devices
-when we use devices we use lots of energy
we throw away devices and create lots of e-waste

Question 2

What natural resources do we use to make devices?

Answer 2

• plastics (casing an other parts), come from crude oil

- precious metals (gold, silver, copper, mercury, palladium, platinum and indium)

Question 3

What are the environmental issues surrounding extracting raw materials?

Answer 3

• uses lots of energy
• creates pollution
• depletes scarce natural resources

Question 4

How is most of the energy made that we use with technology?

Answer 4

• using non-renewable sources(coal,oil,gas)

- extraction of these natural resources and producing electricity from them creates a lot of greenhouse gases

Question 5

What ways do devices use energy?

Answer 5

• power station energy for use
• require air conditioning which uses more energy and creates more pollution
• devices also waste a lot of energy

Question 6

How is computers generating heat and therefore requiring cooling an environmental issue?

Answer 6

• powerful servers used by businesses and the Internet are very power hungry and require special air-conditioned rooms to keep them cool
• means using more energy and creating more pollution

Question 7

How is devices wasting a lot of energy an environmental issue?

Answer 7

• servers normally only use a small amount of their processing power
• people often leave desktops, phones etc. idle
• these devices can use a lot of energy without even doing anything

Question 8

What are ways to reduce the amount of energy wasted by devices?

Answer 8

• using virtual servers, so multiple virtual servers can be run on one physical server, so it can be used at full capacity
• most modern devices include sleep and hibernation modes to stop them from being left idle
• not leaving devices on standby

Question 9

How is e-waste an environmental problem?

Answer 9

• the world creates 20-50 million tonnes of e-waste every year
• modern devices have a very short life (they break or people want an upgrade)

Question 10

How are device manufacturers and retailers part of the problem with e-waste?

Answer 10

• they provide short warranties
• use marketing to convince people they need to upgrade
• have pricing policies, making it cheaper to replace than repair

Question 11

What is being done to try and tackle the e-waste problem?

Answer 11

Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive was created

• have rules for disposing of e-waste safely
• promote reuse
• promote recycling of precious metals

Question 12

What is the issues with where most e-waste is sent currently?

Answer 12

• to cut costs e-waste is sent to certain African countries where regulations are less strict
• most waste ends up in landfill and can be hazard (toxic chemicals can leak into groundwater and harm wildlife)