World’s largest chip foundry TSMC sets 2050 deadline to go carbon neutral:
The dirty secret of the computing and networking world is that most of its pollution comes not from the electricity used to run the devices, but from the energy and materials used to produce the chips that make it all possible.
In a typical laptop like a MacBook Air, manufacturing represents 74 percent of the device’s lifetime carbon emissions, including shipping, use, and disposal. Of that, about half is from integrated circuits, according to a recent study led by researchers at Harvard. Researchers have found similar trends throughout the industry. “Chip manufacturing, as opposed to hardware use and energy consumption, accounts for most of the carbon output attributable to hardware systems,” the study’s authors said.
That footprint may wane in the coming years, though, as TSMC announced last week that it would flatten its emissions growth by 2025 and reach net-zero carbon by 2050. That’ll be a tall order for a company that produced over 15 million tons of carbon pollution last year across the entire scope of its operations, about the same as the country of Ghana. Though the amount of carbon pollution per wafer produced by TSMC has declined in recent years, surging demand for semiconductors has driven overall emissions up, and years of rising energy use, likely from the introduction of EUV lithography, has slowed progress.
[...] To achieve the net-zero goal, TSMC will have to work hand in hand with the Taiwanese government. The company uses 4.8 percent of the island’s power today, a figure that’s expected to rise to 7.2 percent by 2022 when the 3 nm fabs are turned on, according to Greenpeace Taiwan. Currently, Taiwan is heavily reliant on coal and natural gas, with less than 20 percent of electricity produced by nuclear and renewables. [...]
To put that 15 million tons into perspective, that's more than some small countries.
Journal Reference:
Udit Gupta, Young Geun Kim, Sylvia Lee, et al. Chasing Carbon: The Elusive Environmental Footprint of Computing, (DOI: https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.02839)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 22 2021, @06:30PM
Will West Taiwan follow through on this commitment after Taiwan and TSMC is taken over?
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Wednesday September 22 2021, @07:09PM (3 children)
Their CEO thinks he'll be in power another quarter century? I mean, why else set a deadline THAT far ahead in the future when he doesn't think he'll be around almost as long and his successor has to deal with the crap?
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday September 22 2021, @07:30PM (2 children)
Because it requires a shit-ton of steps in between that will take years-or-never to complete?
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Thursday September 23 2021, @08:46AM (1 child)
Why would a CEO care? Just announce it 5 years into the future, cash in on your stock, take the golden parachute in 3 years and bail.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday September 23 2021, @04:05PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 4, Informative) by Snotnose on Wednesday September 22 2021, @07:47PM (7 children)
There is the debt bomb. Everybody owes too much money, and Biden is threatening to spend another 3.5 trillion the USA doesn't have. The feds are already printing money as fast as they can, which is fueling inflation. It's just gonna take one little hiccup and the whole thing will go kablooey. I suspect we'll see another '08 Recession during Biden's term, and that may well be the little hiccup.
Global warming is increasing. More crops will fail, it will take farmers too long to adjust to the new climate. Which will be changing faster than they can adjust. Which means we'll probably have enough corn to make E85 gas but not enough to feed us. Thank you Iowa for your selfish contributions to the national good.
There are too many people on the planet. The more we increase farm yields the more we can feed people. The more we increase medical tech the more people we need to feed. The more people we have the more farmland we need to pave parking lots.
I won't even go into China's viewpoint, nor Islam's trying to get nukes. They're both in the "get back to me" stage, I don't see nuclear war as an issue. Caveat on North Korea. IMHO, Seal Team Six should put a round through Kim's head ASAP, and everyone intel says might replace him. That country won't go full Afghanistan, they'll go full "China, help us". Which solves other problems.
I'm old enough that according to various charts 50/50 I'll be dead in 10 years. I suspect I'll live longer because I'm in good health and have good genes.
But look at those same charts, I'm prolly sure dead in 20 years.
My odds of being around in 2050? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be alive then. But, well, I was a math major and while I never had to take a statistics class (something every high school kid should be required to pass) I did grok them years ago.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 22 2021, @08:48PM
The more non-whites we feed, the more starving non-white babies they make. Then, the NGOs (non gentile organizations) put them on boats and planes and send them into white nations.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 22 2021, @09:10PM (1 child)
You seem to be contradicting yourself here, do the feds have it (they can print it) or not?
Sovereign Currencies can do all sorts of things without bearing (serious) consequences that you, as a 'responsible adult' that has to balance your bank account, cannot do.
USG will _NEVER_ run out of money. Will it be worth what it was worth yesterday, heck no, but USG will, by design and definition, never ever run out of money. And why is that, you may ask? Because the Chair of the Federal Reserve can (quite literally) push a button on a very special keyboard in his office and voila, trillions of new dollars out of thin air. I'm not even making this shit up. The Fed Chair has that power and if you really think that the Fed Chair won't do that when the entirety of USG is breathing down his neck, then I have a bridge to sell you
Stop going on about inflation, it's no-where on the horizon except in the wet dreams of "fiscal conservatives" so that they can yell "see, told you so" but never will be able to. You're being force-fed a diet of lies about the threat thereof given the problems we are facing.
If you truly feel there are too many people on the planet, then I applaud you for the inevitable conclusion you have to draw and the actions you now have to apply to yourself.
I'm very glad that you don't want to go into these subjects because you demonstrate that you have fuck-all of a clue about them.
"Islam" isn't trying to get nukes. This sentence-segment by itself demonstrates your lack of understanding in this realm or the world in general.
Your not-so-humble opinion about what to do with NK is "ill-informed" to say the least. Do you really think that if it was that simple, USG wouldn't have done that yet? It's not like they haven't disappeared and murdered heads of states before.
You also demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of the relationship between NK and China. China does not like NK, China does not want an unstable NK, China abides, but China does not like the whole deal there. From its perspective, NK is some pissant neighbour that they have to live next to out of pure necessity/bad luck. When NK falls, China is in no way willing to embrace whatever will come from that direction. In reality, the only reason why China abides when it comes to NK is that China knows that when that pissant dictator is gone, it's going to be even worse and they'll have to clean up (some of) the mess. They do _not_ want to do that.
Didn't you just say there were too many people on the planet? Rules for thee but not for me?
The Dunning-Kruger is strong in this one.
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Thursday September 23 2021, @08:35AM
I think you are being naive here. Official numbers might indicate low or no inflation, however, they certainly only reflect a narrow spectrum of the economy. A forteriori, inflation calculations have been tampered with for a long time (hedonic calculation). It is true that due to low wage increases, inflation as measured has not increased much (e.g. food), however, in other areas there has been huge inflation. Most notably real estate and shares. You can postpone buying a home but eventually you will make the purchase which means that inflation (as measured) will catch up.
To connect it to threats is a false dichotomy. There is no threat. There is only great social injustice in that people owning shares and real estate are protected from inflation while the rest is not. One would like to be fiscally conservative to be socially progressive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 22 2021, @09:14PM (2 children)
How in the name of minging fuckery is parent rated "Informative". It's an incoherent rambling at best, a racist diatribe at worst.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 22 2021, @09:24PM (1 child)
Well, you see, one asshole decided to mod the comment up. Just one. If you had an account here you could use your own mod points instead of bitching.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 22 2021, @09:56PM
Someone might see your comment if you didn't post anonymously to burn karma.
(don't misuse the honour among the various personalities of Anonymous Coward)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday September 23 2021, @02:05AM
Unless, of course, that doesn't happen. How hard again is it to switch crops? Something like olives or apples might take years to adapt. But a lot of crops can be changed from year to year. Climate isn't going to change that fast, assuming it is changing fast at all!