CHG 569
Environmental Pollution Engineering
Module X
The next pollution is here
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Digital Pollution
The digital revolution has evolved through four phases, beginning with big, expensive,
standalone computers, and progressing to today’s digital world in which small, inexpensive
digital devices are everywhere
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Why digital ?
The Revolutions have been great turning points in history
and have been of immense benefit to man, hence the term
“REVOLUTION”
1st Revolution mechanical revolution- hand production to machines, mechanization
driven by steam power
2nd Revolution- discovery of electricity lead to the electical revolution, with inventions
like electric lighting, radio, and phone.
3rd Revolution-computers and programmable control lead to the automation revolution,
semiconductors, mainframe computing, personal computing, and the Internet. Analog equipment became digital (TVs of old were tuned with
an antenna (analog) now replaced by an Internet-connected tablet that lets you stream movies (digital).
4th Revolution characterized by the application of information and communication technologies mainly to
industry but also to the rest of societies’ activities and builds on the 3rd revolution. Industry 4.0 is actually the
digitalization of the manufacturing environment with Big Data, Internet of Things, Data Analytic, Smart systems,
simply put, there is an enormous increase in the use of digital devices (, thus:
5 THE digital revolution
With the internet came an information revolution, this information is usually represented as data,
which in turn is represented as discrete digits (use of numbers – 0 and 1). Digital electronics are
used in devices to store, process and transmit data.
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Today’s world runs on DIGIT – Data is the new
oil
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Today’s world runs on DIGIT – Data is the new
oil
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Carbon footprint
9 Water footprint
Digital Pollution: What is it?
environmental pollution produced by digital tools during ‘take-make-waste’
the greenhouse emissions – carbon footprint - behind our digital activity – The
humongous amount of energy required From the consumption of data centres to transmission
networks to our handheld devices these are the pollution drivers
Digital Pollution drivers
– Data Centers – store & host webpages
– Access networks – wiring and antennas that carry data
– End-user devices – computers, tablets, laptop and routers
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A data centre
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How the Internet Travels Across Oceans. Source: New York
Times
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Digital Pollution: Causes
Digital technology means using energy, it is therefore an envirinmental issue
Mining for components – smart phones, computers, etc. have metal components that need to
be mined, and mining causes water pollution, dangers to human health, and destroys ecosystem
Excessive energy consumption for manufacturing, transportation, and use - According to a
study carried out in 2019 by a digital expert, it represents nearly 3.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions
the ranking of impact sources (in decreasing order of importance) is as follows:
1. Equipment manufacturing ;
2. Electricity consumption of the equipments ;
3. Network power consumption ;
4. Data centres' power consumption ;
5. Manufacture of network equipments ;
6. Manufacture of equipment hosted by IT centres (servers, etc.)
Electronic waste – rapid turnover of electronic devices due to rapid growth in technology – new
devices with superior features making older devices obsolete =>s increase in e-waste generation,
pollution and raw material depletion. The consumption and production of electronic devices follow
the linear model of take-make-dispose [not good for the environment]
– E-waste in landfills - hazardous substances in e-waste leach into the ground and release toxic gases
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The Environmental Impact of Digital
Technologies and Data
Manufacturing means resource depletion
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Rare earth metals refinery tailings lake,
China
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So how sustainable is the digital revolution
The carbon footprint of streaming a 30 mimute show is the same as an average car’s 1 km drive
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The world is choking on digital pollution
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53 million tons of e-waste in 2019
(smartphones, computers, TV)
Only 20% of e-waste is collected and recycled. 80% end up in landfills
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In 2019, the world generated 53.6 million metric tons of e-waste, and only
17.4% of this was officially documented as properly collected and recycled.
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Mitigating measures
– it’s all about reducing energy usage
Mitigating Resource depletion & Waste generation
• Only replace electronic devices if really necessary, this helps to
reduce consumption of digital devices
• Encourage recycling of electronic devices by devices made from
recycle material
Mitigating energy consumption by efficient use of devices
• Reduce file size. ...
• Prefer download and reduce video streaming. ...
• Store the files on your hard drive. ...
• Subscribe only to newsletters that interest you. ...
• Delete junk files and unused apps. ...
• Turn off any devices you are not using.
26 • Reduce screen brightness
So how sustainable
is the digital revolution
Phone calls vs. emails
Face-to-face meetings vs. zoom
Physical shopping vs. online shopping
Download vs. streaming
Paper books vs. e-reader
27 File cabinet [Link] storage
What of the water footprint?
Considering AI models, e,g GPT-3
Training in a state-of-the-art U.S. data centre
could consume up to 700,000 litres of
freshwater – a great concern due to freshwater
scarcity.
How?
Direct consumption, on-site, for cooling
servers
28 Indirect consumption, off-site, for electricity
Water footprint of the digital revolution?
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Digital Pollution
Ecological(resource /waste)
footprint
Carbon footprint
Water footprint
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