Information Technology Meets Global Ecology: Computer Manufacturing
Is there an intersection between the worlds of information technology (IT)
and global ecology?
Many people would answer, “No!” They might argue that the worlds are mutually
exclusive: that the very act of manufacturing a computer degrades the
environment by using massive amounts of resources -- clean water, intensive
labor in clean rooms -- and producing toxic waste in quantities that far
outweigh any potential positive effects that one computer could have on the
world.
In fact, these are the resources used to make one 8-inch wafer 1:
4,267 cubic feet of bulk gases
3,787 gallons of waste water
27 pounds of chemicals
29 cubic feet of hazardous gases
9 pounds of hazardous waste
3,023 gallons of de-ionized water
Not only is semiconductor manufacturing the worst air polluting industry, it
also uses several million gallons of water a day.
We’ll pick up this discussion next week and explore the ideological
ramifications of computers: Are they giving us power or taking it away?
1 excerpted from “Chips Ahoy: The hidden toll of computer manufacture and
use,” by John C. Ryan and Alan Thein Durning.
