1. The first is in the sheer amount of electricity that our digital ecosystems consume. We all know the frustration that arises out of batteries dying and phones not carrying enough charge charge is , indeed , a harrowing experience. But at the back-end of it is an enormous power surge. The large network of service providers, surveys, information storage and distribution consumes an extraordinary amount of energy which is , generally , still dependent on fossil fuels.
It is estimated that one hour of cellphone usage with data connection uses the same amount of energy that a family house uses in an entire day. Because while while your device might be energy compliant and very low in emissions, the large array of the Internet of Things that needs to be in place to support your device, is an invisible energy cost that takes its tolls on the environment.
2. Even more than active usage , it is the storing of everything on the cloud that is, perhaps, more problematic. As we stream everything on Netflix, Spotify and YouTube, we have to realise that all this information is being stored in huge data centres powered by massive electricity sources to keep it all alive. The energy cost of our digital histories is almost impossible to compute in environmental measures.
3. The third big problem that we often don't recognise is our obsession with updaing our devices. We throw and exchange our electronic devices at the blink of a trend. Mostly, older phones and laptops are not recycled but broken down into e-waste. Huge landfills are now the graveyards of old electronics which have components that cannot be recycled, and have elements that are no longer useful. Most of these elctronics devices are made with metals and precious components that are mned at huge environmental costs.
The ebooks loaded on tablets, probably killed more trees than that one physical book, which will lend itself to recycling more easily than the tablet
( Filtered from a article on The Indian Express )
