The wastage of technology

52,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere just from the iPads and iPods sitting around in IT. Any leader, teacher or student in UWCSEA should know that the school has purchased upwards of 400 iPads and iPods respectively. This, needless to say, is quite a lot of technology. More importantly though, it is a lot of useless technology. It is my position that we need to be aware of the usage of technology and adjust our resources to that. iPads and iPods use too much energy, waste natural resources, threaten the lives of factory workers and are again, mostly useless.

Before you take the pitchforks and torches out, we should address that some of us do use this technology once or twice in a year (not including classroom iPads). Although the real question at hand is the need for more than four hundred iPads and iPods for school purposes, in grade seven poll of a hundred and two students, approximately one in two of them said that they had never used a school iPad in grade seven. It really begs the question whether we should be using this technology, especially when we have more two thousand and seven hundred laptops to use on a daily basis.

First of all, the issue with having too much technology is because it takes up too much power. Through statistics shown in Leo Hickman's article explaining how green the iPad really is, he proves that in the average lifespan of an iPad, it is responsible for 130 kg of CO2 through continuous charging. If we cut down the number of iPads we have by half, we could be saving 26,000 kg of CO2.

Another problem is that it wastes natural resources such as aluminum. This is already a problem for apple with their wide variety of gadgets, but just having a random four hundred around isn’t doing a lot for the earth. There are a countless number of articles talking about how Apple's industry and manufacturing impacts the earth, but I’m going to make it short and simple. We are wasting the earth's resources by having excess technology. Period.

Lastly, manufacture of these iPods and iPads is not without damage to the environment. Most of Apple’s products are manufactured in China with horrendous work conditions as proven in an article on BBC which exposes the violations of Apple’s promise to “protect” workers and the 18-hour shifts worked by employees. Arwa Gunja is his article about the toxins and chemicals in apple factories quotes “most of the teens working there don’t even know they're working with poisons”. It has been shown that these workers are exposed to harmful toxins through making, yep, those 400 iPods and iPads lying around in IT. Aluminum dust, battery acid, and benzene have been proven to be harmful through prolonged exposure.

If we could simply sell or donate around 200 iPads and iPods, we would be saving 52,000 kg of carbon dioxide, save aluminum and copper and finally save the lives of many underpaid and overworked workers. It’s a win - win for everybody.


Bibliography:

Duell, Mark. "'Forced to Stand for 24 Hours, Suicide Nets, Toxin Exposure and Explosions': Inside the Chinese Factories Making IPads for Apple." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

Hickman, Leo. "How Green Is the IPad? | Leo Hickman." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 28 May 2010. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.

"Are Apples Really Green? The Environmental Impact of Our IPad, IPhone Obsession." My Green Halo. Green Halo, 14 Oct. 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.

Elliott, Amy Mae. "The Impact of the IPod." Mashable. Mashable, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.

"BBC Exposes Inhumane Working Conditions in Apple Factories." BBC Exposes Inhumane Working Conditions in Apple Factories. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.