01 Section 3 - Environmental Issues Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the environmental issues of technology?

A

-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

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2
Q

What natural resources do we use to make devices?

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

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

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3
Q

What are the environmental issues surrounding extracting raw materials?

A
  • uses lots of energy
  • creates pollution
  • depletes scarce natural resources
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4
Q

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

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

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

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5
Q

What ways do devices use energy?

A
  • power station energy for use
  • require air conditioning which uses more energy and creates more pollution
  • devices also waste a lot of energy
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6
Q

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

A
  • 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
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7
Q

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

A
  • 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
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8
Q

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

A
  • 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
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9
Q

How is e-waste an environmental problem?

A
  • 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)
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10
Q

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

A
  • they provide short warranties
  • use marketing to convince people they need to upgrade
  • have pricing policies, making it cheaper to replace than repair
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11
Q

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

A

Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive was created

  • have rules for disposing of e-waste safely
  • promote reuse
  • promote recycling of precious metals
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12
Q

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

A
  • 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)
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