An Electronic Silent Spring
July, 2018 Newsletter from Katie Singer
www.electronicsilentspring.com
Statement for the United Nations’
July, 2018 High Level Political Forum
on Sustainable Development
To be presented by Katie Singer www.electronicsilentspring.com
The Internet’s unintended consequences
Internet service has become necessary for family connectedness and educational and economic opportunities. The Internet is the largest thing that humanity has built, yet its impacts remain largely invisible and unregulated.
Consider each smartphone an Internet portal, a luxury item. Downloading one hour of video per week uses more electricity than two new refrigerators require in a year, yet not every household has a refrigerator. Because of increased video streaming and smart devices, e-technologies’ power demands increase 20% per year. Wireless Internet access uses 10 times as much energy as wired (i.e. fiber optics-to-the-premises with no wireless interface in the last mile). The Internet could generate 3.5% of greenhouse gas emissions (more than aviation and shipping industries) by 2020 and 14% by 2040. By 2025, with power-hungry servers storing data from billions of Internet-connected devices and an international array of access networks, the communications industry could consume 20% of the world’s electricity, straining grids and hampering climate change targets.
Globally, we generate more than 47 million tons of e-waste per year.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) now threatens half of all jobs, including in farming, medicine and teaching.
Peer-reviewed studies show that exposure to electromagnetic radiation (EMR) damages DNA, increases risk of behavioral problems, cancer and other diseases and disrupts bees’ navigation. In 2018, the World Health Organization classified gaming addiction as a mental health disorder.
Ineffective cybersecurity threatens every country’s power grid, elections and democracy and every citizen’s finances and privacy.
The Internet continues to expand
The Internet’s unintended consequences hamper our ability to achieve the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Still, it expands without regulation.
About three billion people are not yet online. They deserve access, even while this will exponentially increase extraction of natural resources and consumption of electricity and water. It will generate more CO2, EMR and e-waste. Since EMR exposures are direct genotoxins and co-factors with other pollutants, introducing wireless services where they do not exist will increase a region’s medical problems and costs.
Questions
How will the world address the Internet’s increasing CO2 emissions, e-waste and consumption of natural resources? To use the Precautionary Approach to safeguard human health and biodiversity, do we limit the Internet use of the four billion people already online? Do we require the industry to prove that new technologies are safe for pregnant women, children, wildlife and weather catastrophes before they are marketed? For people who do not yet have access, do we prioritize refrigerators, clean water and indoor plumbing over mobile phones? Who will decide these questions?
Would fiber optics to the premises provide Internet access that consumes less energy, water, and conflict minerals? Who has the resources to fund reliable answers to this question?
Could the UN collaborate with governments, manufacturers, banks, and schools to conduct educational campaigns about the Internet’s unintended consequences and the necessity of limiting Internet use and growth?
Could the UN create an agency to monitor consumption of natural resources (including conflict minerals), greenhouse gas emissions and e-waste as well as impacts on health and biodiversity made by access networks, data centers and the manufacture of every Internet-connected device? Could the UN’s agency enforce limits on Internet use?
To achieve the UN’s 17 SDGs, engineers trained in rigorous due diligence will need to generate solutions that make the Internet more sustainable, safe and secure. Who has the resources to fund such an agency?
References
Andrae, A. and T. Edler, “On global electricity usage of communication technology: trends to 2030,” Challenges, 6(1):117-157, 2015.
Baliga, Jayant, et al, “Energy Consumption in Wired and Wireless Access Networks,” IEEE Communications Magazine, June, 2011.
Barnes, F. and B. Greenbaum, “Some Effects of Weak Magnetic Fields on Biological Systems: RF fields can change radical concentrations and cancer cell growth rates,” IEEE Power Electronics, 2016, 3(1).
de Decker, Kris, “Why We Need a Speed Limit for the Internet,” https://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-10-21/why-we-need-a-speed-limit-for-the-internet/
de Decker, Kris, “The monster footprint of digital technology;” http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/06/embodied-energy-of-digital-technology.html
Eichstaedt, Peter, Consuming the Congo: War and Conflict Minerals in the World’s Deadliest Place, Lawrence Hill Books, 2011.
Jauchem, J., “Effects of low-level radio-frequency (3kHz to 300 GHz) energy on human cardiovascular, reproductive, immune and other systems: a review,” Int. J. Hyg. Environ. Health, 2008; 211(1-2): p. 1-29.
Malkemper, E.P., T. Tscheulin, et. al., “The Impacts of artificial Electromagnetic Radiation on wildlife (flora and fauna),” a report of the EKLIPSE project, 2018; http://bit.ly/Eklipseoverview.
Mills, Mark P., “The Cloud Begins with Coal: Big Data, Big Networks, Big Infrastructure and Big Power,” 2013. Sponsored by the American Mining Assoc. and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.
National Toxicology Program, TR-595: Toxicology and Carinogenesis Studies in Hsd:Sprague Dawley SD Rats Exposed to Whole-Body Radio Frequency Radiation at a Frequency (900MHz) and Modulations (GSM and CDMA) Used by Cell Phones, 2017, US Dept. of Health and Human Services.
www.saferemr.com Website posted by UC/Berkeley public health analyst Dr. Joel Moskowitz, presents studies about health effects of EMR exposure.
Smith, Ted, David Sonnenfeld and David N. Pellow, Eds., Challenging the Chip: Labor Rights and Environmental Justice in the Global Electronics Industry, Temple Univ. Press, 2006.
UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology, The Precautionary Principle, 2005.
Warnke, Ulrich, Bees, Birds and Mankind: Effects of Wireless Communication Technologies, Kentum, 2009.
WHO, “IARC Classifies Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields as Possibly Carcinogenic to Humans: Press Release,” 2011.
WHO, “Gaming disorder,” International Classification of Diseases, 11th ed., 2018.
Dear Readers:
June 5 and 6, I attended the UN’s Economic and Social Council, Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Development for the Sustainable Development Goals. Many of the presenters spoke about how technology helps them to achieve clean water, sustainable fishing, decreased disease. There were criticisms of technology: biologists are concerned about biodiversity loss, especially regarding insects. Representatives from several countries said that many countries are unaware and unprepared to respond to Artificial Intelligence (AI) (robots) taking more than 50% of jobs within a decade.
I spoke about the Internet’s consumption of electricity, water and conflict minerals; its e-waste and CO2 emissions. I offered several solutions and distributed my flyer: www.electronicsilentspring.com/flyer
To my astonishment, many people thanked me for my presentation and encouraged me to return. So: I will present the statement above at the UN’s July, 2018 High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
Please note: I have expanded my flyer. Also, by the end of July, I should have German and Japanese translations of the original flyer available. All flyers can be found at www.electronicsilentspring.com/flyer
And, my forthcoming book, Our Web of Inconvenient Truths: The Internet, Energy Use, Toxic Waste, and Climate Change will report on the Internet’s exponentially increasing footprint and how to curtail it.
Not-to-be-missed papers about technology’s impacts:
on Artificial Intelligence
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/you-will-lose-your-job-to-a-robot-and-sooner-than-you-think/ by Kevin Drum
Bill Joy’s “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us,” Wired, 2000. https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/ One of the scariest pieces I’ve read, moreso because it’s 18 years old.
Another bill in Congress
to streamline siting processes for small cells on public right-of-ways: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th=congress/senate-bill/3157
Public health
Hertsgaard, Mark and Mark Dowie, “How Big Wireless Made Us Think That Cell Phones Are Safe,” The Nation, 3.30.18. One of the best papers available about the industry’s influence on scientific studies.
WHO classifies “gaming disorder” as mental health condition https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/health/video-game-disorder-who/index.html Why would the CDC dispute WHO’s classification?
Ohlheier, A, “Forty-five percent of teens are online ‘almost constantly’ and they don’t know if it’s good for them,” 5.31.18. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2018/05/31/forty-five-percent-of-teens-are-online-almost-constantly-and-they-dont-know-if-its-good-for-them/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.cfc2ebed9f81
“Why You Should Turn Off WiFi At Night [And 3 Ways To Do It] https://emfacademy.com/turn-off-wifi-at-night/#how
Please invest! to keep this newsletter (and our new foothold at the UN) going. Annually, web hosting, site and mailing list maintenance, and flyer design cost $4000. Transportation, lodging and food for each trip to a UN forum costs $3500. Salary for writing and directing these projects is $3000/month. Investments are welcome through PayPal. If you’d like a tax deduction for your investment, please contact Katie Singer by replying to this newsletter.
Thanks to everyone who uses technology as safely as possible, reduces their energy use and EMR emmissions.
To healthier ecosystems and safer communities,
Katie Singer
www.electronicsilentspring.com