An apple a day could save us perhaps. Not a
The middle of the year unveiling of newer versions of ‘smart’ devices is now an annual fixture, pandemic or not. How sustainable this is, is a question rarely asked.
The ‘planned obsolescence’ as
This planned obsolescence of tech, especially in emerging markets such as India, does nothing but add to our existing woes from an environmental perspective.
Even vehicle manufacturers don’t have versions coming out every other year. Neither do we throw vehicles away after a year’s use.
For the keen observer, the disposability of
Manufacturers are ignoring the fact that we are in the midst of the climate crisis: even the so-called woke tech players. The industry is yet to take note of the the massive e-waste pile up as new
Disposable smart gadgets not only expose the lack of commitment to a sustainable and green future but the fact that big tech are greenwashing their way towards a metaverse of their liking.
Health hazards of e-waste handling, such as mercury poisoning notwithstanding. In 2019 alone, 53.6 metric tonnes of e-waste – smartphones,
Though we see big commitments from semiconductor makers, questions arise why smart gadgets are often unrepairable – say a spare camera like a spare wheel. The Fairphone, for instance, is a tweak in the right direction.
Now to the ethics of big tech, or the lack of it: “We (Instagram) make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,” a leaked internal document of Facebook, now widely circulating in the media, revealed. The scale of the insensitivity is appalling: Let’s not just talk about the now-halted Instagram for kids.
A recent WSJ report just exposed Facebook’s double standards for the high and mighty: not holding certain profiles accountable for the excesses on the social network.
A shareholder lawsuit claimed the tech giant paid $4.9 bn to the United States Frederal Trade Commission to withhold founder
It is as though Facebook just doesn’t like the fact that you have the right to be not part of it. Of course tech has the right to disrupt and course-correct if need be. But that does not mean playing a role in uprooting entire communities or rendering teens to depression.
Process this: how did big tech go unscathed during the coronavirus economic fiasco – that trip to space excluded – when almost every other sector was pummelled by the fallout of the virus?
This is the real metaverse big tech often love to refer to — in the outer, the garb of a tech-enabled ideal society where inequity is a thing of the past, which everyone’s happy to lap up, but in real, an insulated business empire that is immune to a tragedy the scale of the pandemic.
“The environmental impact of computing systems is multifaceted, spanning water consumption as well as use of other natural resources, including aluminium, cobalt, copper, glass, gold, tin, lithium, zinc, and plastic,” according to a recent Harvard university paper.
Research suggests manufacturing a brand new smartphone requires as much energy as recharging a smartphone for a decade. The tech industry’s carbon emissions is projected to hit 14% by 2040 from 1% in 2007. Not to mention the rare earth mineral mining for electric batteries setting back poorer nations, especially in Africa.
How the idea of commons – spaces that essentially did not belong to anyone in particular but accessible to all, just as a public square – is gradually being swallowed by the excesses of tech is alarming with devices invading personal spaces everywhere.
Only a change in consumer behaviour can effect a transformation in big tech policy which is to say individual awareness shall inspire collective action.
In short, at the moment, big tech is turning out to be just another oversell.
