When the Virtual Becomes Real
For decades, modern industry has increasingly fallen into the crosshairs of environmental waste and damage. Hardly a week went by without hearing of the damage of fossil fuels, contamination of water sources, ruination of the Amazon rainforest as the never-ending search of natural resources raged on. While serious strides have been made in mitigating these practices, we have yet to put a serious dent in the ravages of environmental degradation.
Somehow in all of this, we came to view the digital age as something clean, efficient and sustainable. Where’s the damage in sending an email or posting a Facebook message? It just all seems so pristine. And our cellphones are tiny, along with our smart watches and laptops almost as thin as paper.
Take that laptop or phone apart, lay them on the table in front you, and it all just seems so efficient. We feel it all goes together in a way that results in clean. A million components somehow work together in a fashion that leaves no sludge, melted ice or polluted air.
Sadly, it’s nothing like that. The moment I send that text message, an entire system fires up to get it to its destination. Expansive infrastructures and systems exist across the world, and in space, to get that little bit of information to where it’s supposed to go in a fraction of a second. We don’t see it, hear it, smell it or touch it, but it exists and it costs a fortune just to make it possible. And the devastation to this planet just to make it function is remarkable.
Digital companies prefer that we don’t give such realities much thought – an easy accomplishment, since we have little idea what kind of physical infrastructure is actually required for the entire networking system to operate as we wish – silent, lightning fast, efficient.
If we were to be shown some kind of accounting for all he fossil fuels used to power that network, the rare and fragile mineral deposits ravaged to make those tiny components in our phones, computers and flat screen televisions, the cheap labour forced to work in harsh conditions and the waste left over at the end of all that production and use, we would be mortified. But we aren’t because, well, the companies aren’t telling us and many of us would just prefer to enjoy our machines and not think about it.
That this system feeds on mostly non-renewable resources makes it clear that our tech and information suppliers are hardly the clean and renewable brands we once believed them to be. Some are improving, but not quick enough to stem the tide. We don’t see these costs, or images of the waste, when we purchase our devices, but such realities push us ever closer to climate change disaster, since over half the world uses such items multiple times a day. We have been duped into thinking we are functioning in a virtual world when, in truth, it has been very real and very dramatic.
We have believed the Information Age, the Technology Age, form environmental waves that will eventually lead us to a cleaner planet. But that is only because the real work of making these devices, of fixing them, of shipping and marketing them, and ultimately of disposing of them, remain out of sight and out of our awareness.
It has been discouraging to compose these words and acknowledge that I am condemning myself with every key stroke. We drive a plug-in hybrid and a SmartCar, we operate smart lightbulbs and smart plugs, we recycle and compost, put money into ethical funds for our investments, and do our best to keep as close to environmental awareness as we can. Yet I use all my devices regularly, every day, likely every hour of the day. I am as bad as the next person and in putting together this blog post, I am consigning myself to being an irresponsible consumer. I have to do better. We all have to do better. It is in our hands as consumers and citizens. It always has been. Now is the time to use that power.
