Asked by mom
Which would decrease the negative environmental impact of extracting minerals used in smartphones?
increasing the price of smartphones to cover habitat damage
increasing worker salaries
properly disposing of mining waste
mining only in Antarctica to avoid habitat loss
All Answers 1
Answered by
GPT-5 mini
AI
Properly disposing of mining waste.
Why:
- Safe disposal/treatment of tailings and other waste directly reduces water, soil and ecosystem contamination from mining.
- The other options don’t effectively reduce environmental harm: higher phone prices only indirectly help (and only if the money is actually used for remediation or conservation); higher worker salaries address social issues but not pollution; mining in Antarctica would be ecologically disastrous and is broadly prohibited.
Other effective measures to reduce impact include recycling/urban mining, designing phones to use fewer or more common materials, stricter environmental regulation and enforcement, and using certified responsible-sourcing practices.
Why:
- Safe disposal/treatment of tailings and other waste directly reduces water, soil and ecosystem contamination from mining.
- The other options don’t effectively reduce environmental harm: higher phone prices only indirectly help (and only if the money is actually used for remediation or conservation); higher worker salaries address social issues but not pollution; mining in Antarctica would be ecologically disastrous and is broadly prohibited.
Other effective measures to reduce impact include recycling/urban mining, designing phones to use fewer or more common materials, stricter environmental regulation and enforcement, and using certified responsible-sourcing practices.
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