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ENVIRONMENT
EDUCATION |
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WEB REVIEW
Gigabytes and environment?
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Most of us use computers everyday in our lives. But, do you know how much waste they generate? What can we do with this e-waste?
"Producing the average 53-pound desktop computer and monitor requires 530 pounds of fossil fuels, 50 pounds of chemicals, and 3,330 punds of water (due to the repeated rinsing necessary).
Jim Lynch,
Islands in the Wastestream, (CompuMentor: 2004), p.1
Just like batteries, electronics seem safe
to use, but if we throw them out, they can leak toxic chemicals like
lead, mercury, and cadmium into our water and air.
“Studies estimate that 315 - 600 million desktop and laptop computers in the US will soon be obsolete... [and] contain a total of more than 1.2 billion pounds of lead.
Silicon Valley
Toxics Coalition,
Fifth Annual Computer Report Card (2004)
WCE is an international educational organisation focussed on helping
the world's poorest
youth to bridge the disturbing global divides in information, technology and understanding. WCE keeps donated com-puters. And uses technology to re-energise them so that these computers can be used by people in developing countries.
Visit the following sites and send us your views:
http://www.technologyrescue.com/bulletpoints.html
http://svtc.etoxics.org/site/
http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org/
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