Michael VealeThe seasonal news that #WhatsApp will stop working on #iPhone 5 and below #Android 4.3 highlights how the lack of Web apps is a significant environmental problem. Phones become obsolete in part because they don’t get OS updates, and they become incompatible with compiled apps. A lightweight OS for old phones would be more feasible if it mainly had to have a solid Web browser that facilitated a proper selection of #ProgressiveWebApps (& if manufacturers made open drivers/docs). #PWA #PWAs
It’s an environmental problem as the replacement of phones is a much, much bigger issue than their energy usage. The extent of it surprises modellers who look into it. See https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.239
Nemo_bis 🌈@mikarv Freitag et al. (2021) is OA at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8441580/ and agrees: «With a large share of their footprint coming from their manufacture, extending smartphones' lifetime is the best way to reduce their footprint. Most studies reviewed here assume an average lifetime of 2 years».
Supporting phones for 10 years would be great but 5 would already be a significant improvement.
The real climate and transformative impact of ICT: A critique of estimates, trends, and regulations
In this paper, we critique ICT's current and projected climate impacts. Peer-reviewed studies estimate ICT's current share of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at 1.8%–2.8% of global GHG emissions; adjusting for truncation of supply chain ...