I was today years old when I realised that the purification of silicon — needed for computer chips — is an incredibly carbon intensive process, and that in a post-carbon economy, we may not be able to do it at all.
So — no more computers, at least not with the technology we use now; and, probably, nowhere near as cheap or as ubiquitous.
#ClimateEmergency
In Our Time: Silicon
Episode webpage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002t2v2
Media file: http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0n8j94p.mp3
Simon Brooke
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2026-04-25 08:40:46 UTC
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