A wild idea, a bitter remedy

A wild idea, a bitter remedy  

Most of us don’t know what’s involved in manufacturing smartphones, solar panels, cars, appliances or TVs. We don’t know about the water, energy, extractions or shipping. We don’t know about the smelters or child labor or slave labor. The Internet makes us think that everything we want is within reach. Peter S. Goodman says that recent events have illuminated some supply chain problems—and changed our perception that we can easily get what we want:

When COVID quarantines shut down Chinese factories, medical supplies, toilet paper and electronics became scarce.

            To avoid missiles fired by Yemeni Houthi rebels (expressing solidarity with Palestinians) at ships approaching the Suez Canal, ships that move goods from Asia to Europe began traveling the long way around Africa, adding two weeks to shipments and increasing prices.

            Drought has lowered the Panama Canal’s water levels—and restricted the number of vessels that can pass through it.

            Manufactured goods arriving at U.S. ports need dockworkers, railroad workers and truck drivers—whose insistence on higher wages has challenged retailers’ profits and consumers’ prices.

            Some U.S. and European retailers have moved production to Vietnam, India or Mexico. Of course, this does not change consumers’ perception that everything we want is within reach. It does not address our problem’s root.

            At the root, we depend on goods (food, electronics, vehicles) that involve supply chains beyond our control. We depend on things made far from our own bioregion. (A bioregion is defined by its watershed. The U.S. has five major watersheds.)

            To address our problems’ roots—call it a bitter remedy or a wild idea that would need major collective commitment and action—could we move toward living with food, medicine, tools and vehicles made only within our bioregion?

            I appreciate that such radical change would not come easy. But the challenges we face from depending on the global super-factory do not look good, either.

VULNERABLE INFRASTRUCTURE

Almost all internet traffic—including Zoom calls, videos and social media—depends on fiber optics laid on the ocean floor. Data travels from a mobile device to a nearby cell tower, to underground fiber optic cables, then to the ocean’s bottom. In The Undersea Network, Wall Street Journal reporter Nicole Starosielski explains that the Internet’s undersea cable network faces increasing threats. When an undersea cable breaks and severs Internet access, local economies can be devastated—and recovery efforts are hampered because people have no way to communicate. The question about cables’ impacts on marine health remains.  

            Electrical technician Sean Polacik explains to Keith Cutter that smart meters aren’t meters. They’re data-collecting computers. Analog meters measured electricity use, worked as surge protectors, and did not generate dirty electricity.

            Say that small businesses form economic infrastructure. In The Everything War: Amazon’s Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power, Dana Mattioli explains how Amazon has “lied, spied and cheated its way to the top” of the U.S. economy—and harmed (decimated?) small businesses.

WIND TURBINES

Recent reports illuminate that wind turbine blades can release not only sharp-edged, large fragments but also respirable fibre dust. These fibres are as carcinogenic as asbestos. They get into bodies through skin and lungs, posing risks to human and wildlife health.

            Some call the broken wind turbine’s giant shards that washed up on Nantucket beaches ‘highly unusual and rare.’ Others say it’s not rare. The broken blade was 351 feet long. Turbine maker GE Vernova blames the break on “insufficient bonding” (glue).

            The possibility of offshore wind turbines in Kaiwi, Hawaii channel waters gets major pushback.

            Wonderful news: Reuters’ Nichola Groom reports that U.S. offshore wind opponents seek to form national group to fight projects.

VEHICLES 

Two and a half days after its owner parked a Mercedes EV in an underground parking lot, it caught fire, injured 23 people with toxic smoke inhalation and destroyed 140 other cars. Here’s more on this story.

When self-driving WAYMO cars blast their horns in San Francisco at 4am, who can you call?

            In Western Australia, since 2020, structure fires caused by lithium-ion batteries have increased by more than 85%.

            New electric and gas-powered cars are now rolling computers. What happens when they stop getting software updates?

A.I.

Here’s a case of regulations not keeping up with technology: A.I.-generated child pornography is usually not illegal. Only a handful of states have enacted legislation that combats sexually-explicit A.I. images of minors. While there are also no federal laws about this, male high school students have used A.I. to create fake sexually explicit images of female classmates.

            Our lives depend now on computers—and we’re also realizing that a single software error can disable, destroy or commandeer them. Connecting the power grid, hospitals and cars to the Interet with defective software turns critical systems into weapons of mass destruction. The Dawn Project aims to make safety-critical software unhackable—and to ban unsafe software from key industries such as transportation, healthcare, communications, water treatment plants and power grids.  

A.I. & Israel

Western Big Tech giants enable Israel’s occupation.

            US Big Tech supports Israel’s AI-powered genocide and apartheid.

            Israel’s tech sector accounts for 20% of its economy.

SATELLITES

SpaceX launches Starlink satellites roughly once per week; and it’s not the only telecom corporation in the game. By the 2030s, 100,000 satellites could crowd low Earth orbit.

            Last month, SpaceX junk crashed onto Saskatchewan farmland.

TECH WORKERS

E-waste recycling centers in China expose workers to flame retardants’ hazardous chemicals. Then, after processing, e-waste negatively impacts the environment.

            Communications Workers of America (CWA) Draws Attention to AT&T Wire Tech Attrition as Bargaining Continues. A survey of 647 Wire Technicians showed that nearly 65% of respondents were actively looking for other jobs. An anonymous wire technician said, “They wonder why turnover rates are so high. It's because you have to have a roommate or a second job to be able to afford to live.”

YOUTH

Teachers told Jessica Grose about A.I. in school—including how students’ ability to wrestle with a problem has shrunk to the length of time it takes to get an answer from a search engine.

            10 Teens Gave Up Smartphones for a Month. Here’s What Happened.