- [Craig] When new computer technologies are introduced, a number of issues need to be considered in addition to the technical feasibility of any solution. These include ethical, privacy, legal, environmental and cultural issues. In this video, we take a brief look at environmental issues of computer science. (uplifting piano jingle) The ever-increasing demand for computing technology has an environmental impact that should also be considered. If we only think about some of the most popular games consoles, sales include the Nintendo DS that sold 154 million copies, the Xbox, Xbox One and Xbox 360 combined that sold 160 million, and PlayStations one through four, which have so far sold almost 450 million. Now, that's an awful lot of units. Factor into that computers, smartphones that alone have sold 1.5 billion, and other electronic equipment, and you can appreciate the demand for natural resources is extremely high. However, those natural resources such as silicon are in a limited supply, they're not an infinite resource. The actual manufacturing process itself takes a good deal of energy. It is said that a computer takes 10 times its weight in fossil fuels to make. Compare this to a car or refrigerator that requires fossil fuels approximately equal to their weight to manufacture. Whilst computers are becoming increasingly efficient, the 24-7 nature of the internet requires data centres to be permanently switched on. Data centres today count for about 2 per cent of the world's total energy consumption, which is about the same as air travel. When computers are disposed, care needs to be taken because they contain many harmful materials such as dioxins, chromium, mercury, cadmium and radioactive isotopes amongst others. Computer equipment is often shipped to countries with lower standards for disposal, and people often trawl through waste looking for metals to be recycled and sold just so they can make a basic living. This exposes them to dangerous chemicals and environments. Just to recap, some harmful materials in technology include dioxins, chromium, mercury, cadmium and various radioactive isotopes. Computing technology is often shipped to countries with lower standards for disposal, and people trawl through waste looking for metals to be recycled and sold, exposing themselves to potential danger. (uplifting piano jingle)