Tech | February 19, 2009 | 9 comments

Digital Frames Have Environmental Cost

source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100754633&ft=1&f=1049

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covelogibbs
All Things Considered, February 16, 2009 · The cost of a digital frame has dropped below $20 and sales are picking up. But this could be bad news for the environment. If each U.S. family had one frame around the house, the country would need five new power plants to keep pace with the new demand for electricity
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9 comments // Digital Frames Have Environmental Cost

  • ksimpson
    • 0
      ksimpson  

    • It would be easy to forget it was an electrical device and not switch it off. It would feel like switching off a painting on your wall. Talking of which I wonder if there will be big wall mounted ones soon.

    • 2 years ago
  • Stacey_S
    • 0
      Stacey_S  

    • Interesting. I have never really thought about this in the UK. Isn't something that I know much about but I can see its ongoing negative effects. But then do families really keep them on 24/7?

    • 2 years ago
  • smallgod
  • smallgod
    • 0
      smallgod  

    • Quick everyone stop technology it is hurting the earth!!

      My god if people keep focusing on the environment what in the hell will happen to technological progression? Eventually everything will become digital and everything within your household will be involved in some way with a computer or a screen.
      Environmentalists need to become serious if they truly want to help the planet. They need to stop making people sort their trash into 8 different bins and focusing on silly things like our current power usage. Why? Simply due to the fact that no one will want to convert. We want to have the luxury we currently enjoy while becoming eco friendly. We need to focus on how to power cities differently and not on how people are buying a neat invention.

    • 2 years ago
  • maisry
    • 0
      maisry  

    • I guess I'll quit comparison shopping now. Sure wanted one, though. But i agree with Jacques - the novelty would probably quickly wear off. Only usefule when you have company.

    • 2 years ago
  • Jacques_of_Spades
    • 0
      Jacques_of_Spades  

    • I know two families that have a digital picture frame, and neither of them kept them on all the time. Or at all.

      They're a neat idea but I don't think they'll be used that much for very long.

    • 2 years ago
  • crazy_french
  • Wraak
  • shawnbot
    • 0
      shawnbot  
    • Wraak:

      Are you sure about that? Consider the impact of periodically using a modest amount of renewable resources (paper from trees and soy-based ink, for instance) to print the photos, versus near-continuous consumption of fossil fuels to run digital frames.

      Besides, I'm fairly certain that manufacturing those digital frames (fabbing silicon is a notoriously water-hungry process) is much more resource-intensive than producing regular old frames from wood and glass and printing the photos that go into them. And let's not forget what happens to those materials when the frames stop working and get thrown in the trash...

    • 2 years ago
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