In our book, Discard Studies: wasting, systems, and power, Max Liborion and I write about defamiliarization and problem framing. in the context of the book we’re talking about how personal experience with garbage and waste […]
Tag: semiconductors
Chemicals and Coalitions
Chemicals are an issue over which a powerful coalition disagree.
Is Net Positive Water a Thing?
Semiconductors are the foundational building blocks of all computing devices–whether that’s an AI model, a car, a phone, or a cheap greeting card that lights up and sings a song. And making semiconductors needs lots […]
What is insignificant impact?
US geopolitical worries, largely focused on rivalry with China, have given permission for the federal government to offer an overt industrial policy for semiconductor manufacturing. The US has embarked on a massively state funded program […]
"Current costs to remove perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), a subclass of PFAS, from the environment at the same rate they are being added were estimated here at 20 to 7000 trillion USD per year."
--Ling, A.L. 2024. “Estimated Scale of Costs to Remove PFAS from the Environment at Current Emission Rates.” Science of the Total Environment 918. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170647.
Carbon Fixation
It is common practice for companies in the electronics sector to publish annual environmental reports. These reports can be very enlightening. After all, they represent a story about a given company in a situation in […]
Interview on CBC’s ‘On the Go’
A short interview about semiconductor manufacturing and the climate emergency. The audio is here: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-47-on-the-go/clip/16064904-semiconductors-climate-change The[…]
$6.6 billion in public money for tsmc: what about the water?
Fortune picks up the story on the CHIPS Act, semiconductor manufacturing, water stress, and the climate emergency: “But in Phoenix, where the factories are going to be built, TSMC faces a lingering question: Where’s the […]
Climate change puts global semiconductor manufacturing at risk.
Can the industry cope? Josh Lepawsky, Memorial University of Newfoundland Semiconductors are the basic building blocks of microchips. These technological marvels are in everything from lightbulbs and toothbrushes to cars, trains and planes, not to mention […]
Electronic Planet Research Lab 