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Within Our Means 3.12.18 DRAFT not yet ready for public distribution Within Our Means: Limiting the Internet's World Wide Footprint (Resources Extracted and E-Waste Generated) To Help Us and It Last Longer by Katie Singer www.electronicsilentspring.com To slow climate change, destruction of the ecosystem and depletion of natural resources on which our survival depends, people in the developed world must impose limits on energy use-- or nature will impose limits for us. This will require lifestyle changes, including how we use the Internet. The Internet is the largest thing that humanity has built,1 yet its demands of electricity, water and conflict minerals; its hazards to workers who mine for its raw materials and who assemble computers; and its waste (which does not biodegrade), are invisible and unknown to most of its users. For the Internet to continue, users must become informed about its demands and regulate their media use. By 2030, the Internet will consume 20% of global electricity production.2 According to a 2016 report from the Semiconductor Industry,3 by 2040, global energy production will not satisfy its demands. Most people in the developed world consider web access a necessity. To help it live longer, every community will need informed authority over its utilities, and Internet service must be recognized as a public utility.4 Communities will need to recognize Internet access as a privilege that requires regulation. Otherwise, we live beyond our means, with a false assumption of limitless resources, waiting for nature to impose limits for us. These are no small tasks. As Bill Torbert, Boston College professor emeritus in management and organization, says, "If you're not aware that you're part of the problem, you can't be part of the solution." This paper aims to illuminate the Internet's demands, to show how every Internet user is part of the problem--and can be part of the solution. The Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution took off in the middle of the 19th century once we humans figured out how to create motors, extract fuel and transmit electricity. In Africa and Asia, European investors began to mine raw materials for fuel and products. They built factories, then confiscated land and forced farmers to move into cities to work in cotton mills. To power engines, water, then coal, then oil were transported to factories. Manufacturers mass-produced cloth, denim pants, leather boots, gas lamps, cast iron pots and treddle sewing machines, then distributed these goods on coal-powered trains over far distances at unheard-of-speeds. For most Europeans and North Americans, buying a factory-made shirt cost less and took less time than looming cloth and sewing the shirt themselves. And so, the Industrial Revolution introduced energy efficiency. It lowered the cost of making goods, sped up production and distribution, and grew the Western economy. Energy efficiency and the Jevons Paradox Most drivers know that frequently starting and stopping a car uses more fuel than steady highway driving. This concept also applies to using electricity: steady demand of power is more energy-efficient than heavy day-time use followed by decreased night-time and weekend demand. There's another aspect to energy efficiency that we usually overlook: in 1862, the British economist William Jevons explained in The Coal Question that energy efficiency is actually the cause of increased energy use. Here's the deal: to make thousands, millions or billions of any product, manufacturers must mine large quantities of fuel and raw materials, ship these to factories, build the factories, produce the item, then distribute and market it to consumers. Mass production of any item, including a computer, uses mass amounts of natural resources. Since energy efficiency has made electronics mobile and lowered their cost, more people own mobile devices. More people own multiple devices. Mobile users expect constant Internet access and generate increased data traffic--which require increased infrastructure, energy and natural resources. Mobile users also replace (upgrade) their devices frequently, which further increases demands of natural resources and generates yet more e-waste. In other words, energy efficiency massively increases demands of natural resources and generates massive amounts of hazardous waste. Even when applied to electronics, this phenomenon is still called the Jevons Paradox. Electrification, economy, increased population In 1800, one billion people lived on Earth. Human use of the Earth's resources did not threaten the entire ecosystem's integrity. Beginning with the Industrial Revolution, technological advances lowered death rates, lengthened lifespans, created a growing economy--and increased the human population. By 1930, two billion people inhabited the Earth. By 1975, the human population had doubled again--to four billion. We're now past seven billion, increasing by one billion approximately every twelve years. By 2025, the human population will reach eight billion. Call us consumers. But the fossil fuels that took billions of years to form and which now power so much of Westerners' daily lives have not increased. As Richard Heinberg, senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute explains, "cheap, concentrated sources of energy in the forms of coal, oil and natural gas...were a one-time-only gift from nature."5 Regulating electronic development Government agencies have diligently protectsx electronic technologies. In 1934, the U.S. Congress established the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC prohibits "harmful interference"--anything that interferes with existing radio or TV broadcasts and (since the 1990s), cellular or Internet services. At the FCC, harmful interference does not include biological harm. Consider this a tipping point in human perception and law. In our enthusiasm for electric things and an ever-growing economy, we created regulations that serve engineering needs and a corporate agenda. We began eliminating regulations (like the ancient principle of first, do no harm) that protect our environment and health. We began relating to the plants, animals, minerals, topsoil and waterways that sustain us as resources for manufacturered goods. In our enthusiasm for new electronics and services, we ignore the fact that they depend on natural resources that have a limited supply and cannot be renewed. Alas. Societies that limit access to their available resources last longer than those that do not impose limits.6 The computer and digital revolutions Tech manufacturers began selling desktop computers in the early 1980s. Laptops arrived in the early 90s. In the mid-90s, telecom providers laid out infrastructure for 2G cell phones. The U.S.'s FCC determined that cell phones were safe to market because they did not change the temperature of a plastic dummy's head by two degrees Celsius after six minutes of use.7 In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed the Telecommunications Act. Section 704 prohibits municipalities from refusing to permit the installation of a cellular antenna based on health or environmental concerns. Regulatory agencies around the world followed suit.?? By the early 2000s, most Westerners had a cell phone and communicated by email. Most businesses got a website. In the U.S., telecom corporations had installed about 300,000 cell towers (also called base stations) to provide infrastructure for wireless communications. With 4G (fourth generation) infrastructure, telecommunications shifted its focus from transmitting voice and conversation to data for video and music.8 With Apple's 2007 debut of smartphones, individuals could literally carry the world wide web in their hands. In 2017, 77% of U.S. Americans owned a smartphone.9 By 2020, over six billion people will use one.10 Mobile Internet access (i.e. via smartphones) has caused broadband networks, data consumption and energy demands to grow exponentially. The world had three million base stations (cell towers, also called masts) in 2007; by 2013, this number had increased to four million.11 In 2005, the average British adult spent 9.9 hours per week online (including at work and home). By the end of 2014, the average Brit spent 20.5 hours per week online.12 In 2016, a Nielsen Company report found that American adults devoted more than ten and a half hours each day to consuming media.13 American teenagers spend nine hours per day using media.14 Mobile Internet access requires more energy than wired access Wireless Internet access requires more energy than wired access because: mobile users expect connectivity everywhere, 24/7. Infrastructure that supports such connectivity requires continuous delivery of electricity to ubiquitously deployed cell sites. Users whose Internet access is limited to a wired desktop access the Cloud much less frequently than mobile users who can watch videos on trains, while dining or standing in a line. Now, multiply the energy required for constant connectivity times a few billion users. As increasing numbers of people acquire smartphones, natural resource demands will increase. To get informed about energy requirements, let's make visible the natural resources that go into every computer. To make a computer Manufacturing semiconductors (every computer's building blocks) To process and store data, to provide memory and apps, a smartphone's low power microprocessors, accelerometers, transmitters and receivers (for cellular, wireless and Bluetooth signals), and noise filtering microphones all require semiconductors.15 Semiconductors
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