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   Jonathan Schofield (urlyman@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-May-2025 18:05:54 JST Jonathan Schofield

   So you want to upgrade from a recent iPhone to the new one? You don’t need it. Consumerism is killing us. And you’re the mark

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     Jonathan Schofield (urlyman@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-May-2025 18:05:52 JST Jonathan Schofield

     in reply to

     …but 2 years on not much has changed:

     “For the third year in a row, rice farmers in southern Taiwan have not been allowed to plant their crops. Instead, the government is paying them subsidies to *not* grow rice this season, because it uses scarce water that semiconductor plants nearby need”

     https://www.opb.org/article/2023/04/19/epic-drought-in-taiwan-pits-farmers-against-high-tech-factories-for-water/

     The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is investing in water recycling but the conflict between people’s needs and the hunger for semiconductors is not abating

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     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Thursday, 08-May-2025 18:05:52 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     @urlyman Bloody hell. It’s always worse than you think, isn’t it? *sigh*

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     Jonathan Schofield (urlyman@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-May-2025 18:05:53 JST Jonathan Schofield

     in reply to

     I caught this episode of #allconsuming on microchips yesterday https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001qg04?

     I learned quite a bit of detail on the profligate use of water in #chipfab, but the underlying sentiment is that the programme is not really serious about the unsustainability of digital tech.

     One of the recurring phrases is “better for the environment” which really just means *less worse*

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     Jonathan Schofield (urlyman@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 08-May-2025 18:05:53 JST Jonathan Schofield

     in reply to

     In 2021, the Guardian covered the chip industry’s dirty #climatecrisis secret – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/18/semiconductor-silicon-chips-carbon-footprint-climate – its huge and growing carbon footprint, and that article touched on Taiwan’s on-going drought…

     Aral Balkan repeated this.