Translated with DeepL
How often do you need to charge your smartphone at the socket? Maybe every 2 days, maybe 3 times a day if you've been using it for a long time? The devices don't seem to need that much power, the electricity bill amounts to 1-2 francs a year. And yet, when we enter the online world, we set a huge machine in motion which, depending on the task, can consume a remarkable amount of energy. If the Internet were a country, it would have the sixth-highest electricity consumption, according to Greenpeace. It's not just individuals who use the internet from time to time. According to a study by digital agency WeAreSocial and software provider Hootsuite, over four billion people spent an average of six hours a day on the internet in 2018. That's a usage time of 1 billion years within one year.
More on this in the current complete issue (in German)
Find out if your favourite apps are powered by renewable energy
Various electricity networks offer group tours, e.g. for classes
Exhibitions
Switzerland in 21 infographics; society, economy, space and environment.
Even more WOW!
A smartphone consists of more than 40 to 60 different raw materials from all over the world. A quarter of these are metals. For example, the good conductors copper and gold, cobalt in the battery or rare earths such as gallium, tantalum or indium.
Most resources are consumed in the extraction of raw materials. Transport, processing, utilisation and disposal also cost a lot of energy.
In Germany alone, 1000 tonnes of valuable raw materials from mobile phones end up as waste every year.
Technoscope is SATW's technology magazine for young people. It reports competently and entertainingly on technology and technical professions. Technoscope is published three times a year in German, French and Italian. It can be subscribed to free of charge. Existing issues can be downloaded as PDF files .
Ester Elices
Christine D'Anna-Huber
