Re: [asa] Ban on computers reportedly wanted.

Behind the humour there are some serious points.

Is there anything you or anyone else can do which doesn't pollute?

Even suicide wont help!

Michael
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Janice Matchett
  To: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 7:55 PM
  Subject: [asa] Ban on computers reportedly wanted.

  The little children who have been told that the polar bears are dying because they and their parents are responsible for global warming will reportedly also be told that Algore has decided to call for a ban on computers, videogames, etc., instead of incandescent lightbulbs after he read what I posted below. Pass it on.

  ~ Janice

  "..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:

  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."

  Excerpted from "Chips Ahoy: The hidden toll of computer manufacture and use," by John C. Ryan and Alan Thein Durning:

  *

  "..Household power used by lightbulbs is actually dwarfed these days by major appliances and high tech consumer electronics- such as wide screen TVs, computers and video games along with internet servers, the biggest energy hogs besides cars and trucks.

  And since the new CFLs produce inferior light compared to incandescents, we'll need more of them to read, shave, comb our hair and brush our teeth. .....

  There's even more.... CFLs contain mercury. ...up to 5 milligrams per lightbulb. If all 4 billion incandescent sockets were filled with CFLs we'd have 20 billion milligrams of mercury spread around every single US household. ...20 billion milligrams is nearly 50,000 pounds.

  That 50,000 pounds of mercury amongst 300 million people, if indiscriminately thrown away, will eventually find its way to your favorite landfill and public drinking water supply. Knock over a table lamp and shatter a CFL in your house, and you have a toxic waste situation on your hands right in the living room, bedroom or dining room.

  On the other hand, at least half of all mercury emissions from coal fired power plants currently is captured by scrubbers, and clean coal technologies promise to eliminate 2/3rds of what remains. Not so for CFLs-- which can't operate without mercury. .....

  [End excerpt from Ban the [incandescent] Bulb? April 04, 2007 ]

  489 posted on 04/05/2007 2:34:18 PM EDT by Matchett-PI
  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1812539/posts?page=489#489

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Received on Thu Apr 5 16:15:40 2007