According to a new study, the smartphones and data centres will be a major factor for damaging the environment. These information and communication technologies will severely affect our environment by 2040, the study warns. The carbon footprint of excessive Smartphone usage along with the use of other consumer devices like laptops, desktops and tablets will harm our environment.
Citing the sources, Science Daily has released a report and quoted McMaster University. The report first appeared on McMaster University’s site. A Canadian researcher Lotfi Belkhir, Associate Professor at W Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology, McMaster University has published findings in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
According to his research, the information and communication technologies (ITC) create a huge impact on the emission. The impact is greater than our expectations and most of the emission is coming from the production and operation of ITC. Presently, the emission is at about 1.5 percent.
According to Belkhir’s study, the ICT could reach to the emission of as much as 14 percent for the worldwide footprint by 2020. These numbers are about half of the total global transportation sector.
How your Smartphone Usage affect our Environment?
Your excessive smartphone usage is not only risky to your health, but it also causes harm to our mother nature. Wondering how? The data centres and telecommunication networks are one of the major energy consumers in the world. In addition, the major data centres are been powered by fossil fuels. The more energy these data centres will consume, the more fossil fuels will be consumed.
Although smartphones run on the little amount of energy to operate, it would be the most environmentally damaging device by 2020. The smartphone production accounts for 85 percent of emissions. The manufacturing of chip and motherboard used in a smartphone require the maximum amount of energy. These components are produced out of precious metals and the cost of mining of such metals is very high.
Another reason behind the harmfulness of smartphones to nature is its short lifespan. Every month, new smartphone models are been produced and launched in the market.