For years, Arthur got around Santa Fe with a bicycle. He never owned a television or a cell phone. He dreamed of people politely accepting neighbors' requests to turn off mobile devices and unplug WiFi. Because computers ravage the Earth and public health from their cradles-to-graves, he dreamed of a society with shared-- not individually owned-- computers. He frequently called for people to quit using mobile devices.
As a member of Once A Forest, he opposed forest management policies such as thinning and prescribed fires.
Arthur understood the consequences of the electrical power at our fingertips. "The only thing we can really do for the Earth is to stop destroying it," he wrote. "Then the Earth will take care of itself. Instead of trying to fix the whole planet, let us attend to our own simple lives."
Firstenberg's books include The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life (Chelsea Green, 2020, more than 100,000 copies sold); Microwaving Our Planet: The Environmental Impact of the Wireless Revolution (1997); and, most recently, The Earth and I (Skyhorse, 2025).
Arthur Firstenberg is survived by a nephew and countless people committed to respecting nature and reducing electronic technologies' harms to ecosystems and public health.
A memorial gathering will take place Saturday, March 1rst at 4:15 pm at the Santa Fe Main Library's Community Room (at the corner of Marcy and Washington Streets).
A Zoom memorial will be scheduled at a later date.
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