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Information Technology Meets Global Ecology:
Computers and
Consciousness
by Cate Gable
Is there an intersection between the worlds of information
technology (IT) and global ecology?
Many people would answer, "No!" They might argue that the
worlds are mutually exclusive: that the very act of manufacturing a computer
degrades the environment by using massive amounts of resources-clean water,
intensive labor in clean rooms-and producing toxic waste in quantities that far
outweigh any potential positive effects that one computer could have on the
world.
In fact, these are the resources used to make one 8-inch
wafer1:
- 4,267 cubic feet of bulk gases
- 3,787 gallons of waste water
- 27 pounds of chemicals
- 29 cubic feet of hazardous gases
- 9 pounds of hazardous waste
- 3,023 gallons of de-ionized water
Not only is semiconductor manufacturing the worst air
polluting industry, it also uses several million gallons of water a
day.
Ideological opponents to information technology like Jerry
Mander argue that computers, "gather staggering new power in the hands of giant
corporations, banks, and global trade bureaucracies.2" Mander tells
us that, "Two hundred corporations now control twenty-eight percent of global
economic activity; twenty-four corporations are among the hundred largest
economies of the world, far larger than many countries.3" All this
is made possible by the centralizing power of computers.
Consider this 1924 statement by educator Joseph Hart which
discusses the revolution of electricity as opposed to steam-power:
Centralization has claimed everything for a century: the
results are apparent on every hand. But the reign of steam approaches its end:
a new stage in the industrial revolution comes on. Electrical power breaking
away from its servitude to steam is becoming independent. Electricity is a
decentralizing form of power: it runs out over distributing lines and
subdivides to all the minutiae of life and need. Working with it, men may feel
the thrill of control and freedom again.4
How wrong this writer was. The production and distribution
of electricity is centralized in the hands of a few large corporations. Rather
than feeling the freedom that this writer predicts, we are entirely dependent
on the energy companies. One of the greatest pleasures for back-to-the-landers,
even today, is the ability to get 'off-the-grid' - to be able to produce,
regulate, and control one's energy costs and use.
Now, imagine that the quote is not about how a new energy
source and distribution system will decentralize power but how the internet
will liberate each computer user and decentralize information distribution. In
fact, the analogy is a close one. Electricity even mimics the actual structure
of the internet in that it has hubs (servers) and lines that go to individual
houses (or computers) for power distribution, usage measurement and billing.
Imagine that electricity is digital information being pumped over these lines.
Could we be under the same delusions at the early stages of
this new technology revolution that Hart was?-that somehow the houses/PCs at
the ends of those lines will have the ultimate power? There were a few short
halcyon months for the world wide web, back when CERN's Tim Berners-Lee
developed an open platform methodology for the presentation of scientific
information; but now Big Business and Big Government have their mitts in the
pot, vying for regulation and control of a system where even privacy is
threatened. The internet has been commandeered by the machinery of capitalism.
And since when has the consumer been in the driver's seat of that machine?
The recent spate of "denial of service" cracker events have
provided Clinton a great excuse to ask Congress to increase to $2 billion
dollars the amount that will be put to solving 'security issues' on the web
(with an additional $37 million going to the Security Department).5
On the
Lehrer
News Hour Feb. 10, 2000, the United States Deputy Attorney General, Eric
Holder, made a slip of the tongue in talking about the FBI eavesdropping on
chat rooms6 to find out information which might lead to the arrests
of the hackers involved in the sabotage. He tried to mop up after his slip by
backing away from his Big Brother on the Net statement but who is he
kidding?
So, back to our original question: is there a positive
intersection between IT and global ecology? Can computers and information
technology become part of the fight to save the earth? Or are we IT
professional and computer-users contributing to our fall into the sink-hole of
techno-hell-where corporate profits reign; where the last remaining Temperate
Westcoast Forests get ground up into pulp, sent to Japan and add to
Weyerhaeuser's bottomline; where wild fish are totally exterminated and we are
left with aqua-farming; and the earth's macro-systems ( air, soil, water,
climate-control) degrade into irreversible decline?
Perhaps, we should ask an even more difficult question: Are
computers changing our consciousness? And if so, how? Do we feel more connected
to ourselves and the wild world-the world of moss, rain, leaves and raccoons-or
does sitting in front of the computer, chatting, downloading, reading and
responding to e-mail create in us a disembodiment, a passivity, and an illusion
of 'motion' that is non-existent?
Maybe I'm a Pollyanna optimist, but I still think there are
many of us who have both a sensual connection to the earth-all the interesting
people in my life have grown up playing in rivers!-and a knowledge of computers
that will allow us to put them to use in the service of sustainable values or,
what Aldo Leopold called, the "Land Ethic:" namely that
A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity,
stability, and beauty of the biotic community, It is wrong when it tends
otherwise.7
I believe that we can be committed to the ethical use of IT,
but this is not an idle activity. It requires vigilance, honesty about our
motives, and the ability to admit where we are wrong. I had never fully
understood the effect of computer manufacturing before researching this
article. Now I see that we must demand the application of industrial ecological
principles to computer manufacturing because in its present form it is
unsustainable; it violates the land ethic.
So, these are the kinds of issues we will explore in this
monthly column. I'll discuss people and projects that utilize information
technology to support environmental rejuvenation. We'll consider what it really
means to use IT wisely and responsibly. We'll review green websites and
portals; I'll keep you apprised of conferences dealing with IT/Eco concerns;
and I hope also to begin a dialogue with you about how you balance information
technology and ecology issues in your own lives.
b i o :
Cate Gable is a poet and writer (author
of Strategic Action Planning NOW!) , strategic marketing consultant in
e-commerce, teacher, and President of Axioun
Communications International. She divides her time between Berkeley, CA;
the Pacific Northwest; and Paris, France. Send comments to her at
cgable@axioun.com. |
