• chevron_right

      The fight to expose corporations’ real impact on the climate

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Saturday, 25 March, 2023 - 11:21

    Discarded electronics

    Enlarge (credit: Walter Zerla via Getty Images)

    Say you are a maker of computer graphics cards, under pressure from investors questioning your green credentials. You know what to do. You email your various departments, asking them to tally up their carbon emissions and the energy they consume. Simple enough. You write a report pledging a more sustainable future, in which your trucks are electrified and solar panels adorn your offices.

    Good start, your investors say. But what about the mines that produced the tantalum or palladium in your transistors? Or the silicon wafers that arrived via a lengthy supply chain? And what of when your product is shipped to customers, who install it in a laptop or run it 24/7 inside a data center to train an AI model like GPT-4 (or 5) ? Eventually it will be discarded as trash or recycled. Chase down every ton of carbon and the emissions a company creates are many times times higher than it first seemed.

    Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

    • chevron_right

      Bin, app, and subscription combo pledges a cleaner kitchen, environment

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 17 January, 2023 - 17:33 · 1 minute

    Image of a white plastic trash can with the lid open.

    Enlarge / Thanks to its wireless connection, the Mill can alert you when it needs emptying. (credit: Mill)

    A new subscription-based service launched today, but instead of bringing a box of meat or Japanese treats to your door, this one promises to take away your food waste. The creators of the service, called Mill , hope that it will reduce carbon emissions and help keep kitchens free of nasty smells and flies—all while feeding chickens with your trash.

    The service is based on a trash can with Wi-Fi capabilities. Its creators say that while there are emissions associated with the bin's creation and operation, the life-cycle assessment they ran on it shows that users still come out ahead when it comes to their carbon footprint.

    Lots of waste

    By some counts, around 119 billion pounds of food are wasted each year in the United States. This takes a toll on the environment, considering the energy that goes into growing, harvesting, packing, and transporting food. According to the World Wildlife Fund , between 6 and 8 percent of human-made greenhouse gas emissions could be eliminated by cutting down on this waste. Not including methane—which is considered 80 times worse than carbon dioxide—food waste and loss accounts for around 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent each year in the US alone.

    Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

    • chevron_right

      Rethinking air conditioning amid climate change

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Saturday, 28 May, 2022 - 11:02

    Rethinking air conditioning amid climate change

    Enlarge (credit: Jupiter Images | Getty)

    It was a monumental day for the environmental movement more than 30 years ago when all 198 countries in the world agreed on something for the first and only time ever. They signed on to the Montreal Protocol , making a pact to phase out a roster of chemicals that damage the Earth’s ozone layer. Chief among these were the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons used by the cooling and refrigeration industry. Alternatives, such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), were quickly found.

    But in recent years, scientists have come to realize that the Montreal Protocol of 1987 might have traded an immediate problem for a long-term one. Though HFCs don’t cause the same damage to the ozone layer as CFCs do, the chemicals have warming potentials hundreds to thousands of times higher than that of CO 2 —making their growing global use a cause for concern.

    The 20th-century industrial revolution saw a major boom in the air-conditioning and refrigeration industry in Europe and North America. Now, as developing nations boost their economies, countries such as China, India, and Nigeria are seeing skyrocketing demand for these appliances.

    Read 50 remaining paragraphs | Comments

    • chevron_right

      Discs vs. data: Are we helping the environment by streaming?

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 4 May, 2022 - 17:41

    Image of a pile of DVDs

    Enlarge (credit: Getty Images )

    Earth Day was April 22nd, and its usual message—take care of our planet—has been given added urgency by the challenges highlighted in the latest IPCC report. This year, Ars is taking a look at the technologies we normally cover, from cars to chipmaking, and finding out how we can boost their sustainability and minimize their climate impact.

    Gone are the days of going to Blockbuster to pick out a film for a night in. Physical media like CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, Sony’s weird PlayStation Portable UMDs, and countless other formats have been thoroughly dethroned thanks to a barrage of streaming services like Netflix— itself ailing at the moment—Amazon Prime, and Spotify.

    For the first time in the past 17 years, CDs saw an increase in sales—of 1.1 percent , or 40.59 million units in 2021, compared to 40.16 million units the year prior. In 2021, people purchased 1.2 billion pieces of physical video media, compared to 6.1 billion a decade prior. Meanwhile, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, revenue from music streaming grew 13.4 percent to $10.1 billion in 2020.

    Read 16 remaining paragraphs | Comments