by
Katie Singer
adapted from a May 23, 2023 presentation
at Canadians for Safe Technology
Last month, I spoke at Canadians for Safe Technology about our technosphere's impacts on nature and unexplored policies for more ecologically-sound tech.
As I readied to publish this talk, I read last month's Gallup poll about the country's most important problem. U.S. Americans' top four mentions go to the government (19%), the economy (13%) immigration (13%), and inflation (10%).
I'm sobered by what got no mention: corporate influence on government; biodiversity loss; manufacturing's impacts on nature; technology's impacts on work (AI""artificial intelligence), technology's impacts on health (addiction, attention deficit, cancer); technology's consumption of fossil fuels and water; technology's dependence on international supply chains; and lack of professional engineering due diligence to manufacture and deploy new electrical and telecom infrastructure.
This is such a mouthful""but none of these made it to Gallup's list!
I think: we need massive education. Consider this talk an introduction.
In 2017, my city council held a public hearing about a proposed ordinance to allow 5G cell sites on public rights-of-way. For two minutes each at the podium, about 30 people lined up. Most spoke about the negative health and wildlife impacts from cell sites' electromagnetic radiation emissions.
I noted that our city routinely endured 50-mile-per-hour winds. I asked if the city would require a professional engineer's (PE's) certification that each cell site's fire and collapse hazards were mitigated before equipment was installed. Also, in the event of a fire or collapse, who would be liable""the city, the telecom corporation or the property owner?
The man who spoke after me""who favored 5G""suggested that I was nuts. "Come on!" he said. "This is not new technology!"
A retired physicist reported that his quick Internet search led to dozens of cell tower fires.
After the public testimony, our city attorney took the podium. "Councilors," he said, "in regard to Ms. Singer's comments, we trust the telecom corporations."
The ordinance passed to allow 5G.
The physicist handed me his list of fires; I posted it on my website.
I wondered, repeatedly, why didn't my questions work?
The Internet's invisibles
The Internet is the largest thing that humanity has manufactured""and yet its safety hazards, ecological impacts and human rights violations remain largely invisible. In pursuing realistic policies for safer telecommunications, here are two realities: 1) Eventually, every electronic device""including lightbulbs, cell sites, power lines, smart meters and mobile phones""will fail. How do we ensure that they fail safely?
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