The Cost of Convenience

With almost everything we do today emitting greenhouse gases (GHG), it might not be all that surprising to know that the production and usage of smartphones leave behind a global footprint - which includes the emission of carbon as well as the use, depletion and destruction of natural resources. The scale and rate at which this is happening however, is one that should be paid attention to.

In 2007, the information and communications technologies industry (ICT), which embodies computers, phones, laptops and telecommunications structures like satellite dishes, routers and data centres, was found to be responsible for about 1.3 percent of global greenhouse gases (GHG). While this figure seems relatively low, a 2018 study by researchers from McMaster University in Canada revealed that the global footprint of the ICT industry is well on its way to be 3.5 percent by 2020. If left unchecked, it could potentially reach 14 percent by