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Sci Tech    H1'ed 10/10/24  

A recipe for respecting nature and technology's limits-- and another for exploiting them

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Katie Singer
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11. Invite every computer user to study the supply chain of one substance in their computer-- and share their research. Recognize that while the vast majority of waste occurs during manufacturing, end-of-life e-waste is also devastating.

12. Make do with what you've got. Celebrate old things. Celebrate people who alter clothes, fix plumbing, repair broken electronics and can find older cars' replacement parts. Enact right-to-repair laws.

13. Recognize that no technology is safe until proven safe-- whether or not this decreases profits. Buy devices and services only if a liability-carrying expert has issued a sealed report that they are safe.

14. Don't buy products or services labeled "green," "clean," sustainable, "renewable," "zero-emitting" or "carbon-neutral," unless the manufacture can prove its claim from the product's cradle-to-grave.

15. Lobby local authorities to require a subject-matter expert's certified report that all hazards (including fire and collapse) have been evaluated and mitigated before they permit a new technology, including telecom access networks, utility-scale solar facilities, wind turbines, power lines, battery energy storage (BESS), data storage centers and EV chargers.

16. Reduce electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emission s. Keep Wi-Fi off at night. Do not charge electronics while you sleep. Get wired Internet access and a landline.

17. Challenge engineers and manufacturers to design biodegradable electronics. Challenge them to design electronics made only from materials available within your watershed.

18. One day each week, refrain from using anything with a screen.

19. Build libraries. Lend books, tools, vehicles and special-occasional clothes. Distribute vegetable and flower seeds. Distribute unused goods for free.

20. Recognize that we share the Earth with nearly nine million other species. Each of us belongs to the Earth. Say thanks for its gifts.

21. Reduce your consumption by three percent per month. Where will you start?

Recipe for exploiting nature and pushing technology's limits:

1. Ignore Herman Daly's principles. Go ahead and take from the Earth faster than it can replenish, and waste faster than it can absorb.

2. Believe that new technology-- new products-- can solve the problems that come from ignoring Daly's principles.

3. Consider the product or service that you want "a necessity." Assume that it generates no hazardous ecological or public health consequences from its cradle-to-grave. Remain unaware of the people who grow your coffee and food and make your electronics, appliances and vehicles. Remain unaware of their ecosystems' degradation. Keep unaware of manufacturing's impacts on ecosystems and indigenous communities. Believe the advertising.

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Katie Singer writes about nature and technology in Letters to Greta. She spoke about the Internet's footprint in 2018, at the United Nations' Forum on Science, Technology & Innovation, and, in 2019, on a panel with the climatologist Dr. (more...)
 

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