Every item has a lifespan, from extraction and production to use and disposal. Tose rollerblades you threw out when you were a teenager? Tey likely still exist in a landfill somewhere. Considering the full journey of an item exposes hidden environmental costs behind everyday products.
Example: Research from Our World in Data (
ourworldindata.org) shows that replacing beef with chicken offers one of the most impactful single swaps in a diet, more than switching from eating chicken to being veg- etarian. Cattle require enormous amounts of feed, land and water throughout their lives. Tey also release methane as they digest, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. By comparison, chicken needs far less land and feed per kilogram of protein, and tofu’s production involves no methane at all. Te difference isn’t just what we eat, but what it takes to grow and sustain it.
E: EMISSIONS AND ENERGY How much energy does it use throughout that life cycle, and where does that energy come from?
Tis varies widely by source country. For instance, an item produced in a Canadian electricity grid, powered predominantly by low-carbon-emitting hydro and nuclear, has a much smaller impact than in China, which, despite being a leader in renewable capacity, still gets about 60 per cent of its electricity from coal. Te same product can carry a completely different footprint de- pending on where it’s made.
Example: Streaming a two-hour film might produce less than 200 grams of carbon diox- ide, but training large artificial intelligence models can require thousands of times more energy, particularly when powered by fossil grids. “Digital” doesn’t mean emission-free, it simply shiſts the emissions upstream to servers, cooling systems and the electricity that keeps them running.
N: NEIGHBORHOOD (LOCAL) IMPACTS Who and what is affected nearby? How does this production shape local ecosys- tems and communities?
ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 21
“
‘DIGITAL’ DOESN’T MEAN EMISSION-FREE, IT SIMPLY SHIFTS THE EMISSIONS UPSTREAM TO SERVERS, COOLING SYSTEMS AND THE ELECTRICITY THAT KEEPS THEM RUNNING.”
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