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6 - Env Issues of Digital Tech - Week31

This document discusses several environmental issues that have arisen as a result of increasing digital technologies and digitization. It notes that digital technologies are driving increases in electricity demand, most of which is produced through coal-fired power plants. This electricity is then used to manufacture electronic devices in a resource-intensive process. Other issues discussed include over-consumption of rare earth elements, large amounts of e-waste produced, disruption of ecosystems from manufacturing facilities, various health hazards, and important ethical concerns around issues like privacy, digital divide, and algorithmic bias. Potential solutions proposed include making organizations, software, and devices more energy efficient and encouraging recycling and "greener" production practices.

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15 views

6 - Env Issues of Digital Tech - Week31

This document discusses several environmental issues that have arisen as a result of increasing digital technologies and digitization. It notes that digital technologies are driving increases in electricity demand, most of which is produced through coal-fired power plants. This electricity is then used to manufacture electronic devices in a resource-intensive process. Other issues discussed include over-consumption of rare earth elements, large amounts of e-waste produced, disruption of ecosystems from manufacturing facilities, various health hazards, and important ethical concerns around issues like privacy, digital divide, and algorithmic bias. Potential solutions proposed include making organizations, software, and devices more energy efficient and encouraging recycling and "greener" production practices.

Uploaded by

m.i.n.aviles10
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Topic: Environmental issues as a result of evolving Tech

Digital Technologies
Dr Kush Koya
Lecture no. 6
Week: 31

Credit: JasonTheStranger
Agenda:
• Pollution
• Over-consumption
• Waste – ‘technotrash’
• Ecology disruption
• Health hazards
• Ethical issues

Credit: Washington Monthly


Pollution
7 grams was the carbon footprint of each Google search in 2009, in 2020 Google claims it is 0gms.

• Digital technology is driving electricity demands.


• Most of this electricity is produced through coal fired generators.
• The produced electricity is again used to manufacture electronic devices.
• Currently, 10% of the worlds electricity is consumed by ICT networks, predicted to rise to 20% by 2025.
• Imagine how increased IoT and 5G technologies can affect the planet’s future.
• Recent computing capabilities i.e. blockchain have little regard about their potential emissions.
Pollution
Over-consumption

• Exploitation of resources to manufacture digital devices.


• Digital devices are heavily reliant on rare earth elements
• Mining materials requires electricity, human labour and secondary resources.
• Manufacturing of these materials into their final end product requires further resources.
• The end product consumes more electricity.
• Human labour in most countries where mining and manufacturing takes place is poorly regulated.
• Is this sustainable?

Credit: The Washington Post


Over-consumption
e-Waste (TechnoTrash)
• Manufacturing produces a large amount of intermediate waste.
• Electronics get discarded once they are deemed outdated and incompatible, especially with evolving software.
• Discarded electronics contain large quantities of hazardous, mainly carcinogenic substances.
• Workers working in e-graveyards subjected to dangerous exposure.
• Special methods need to implemented for break down and safe disposal.
• Reuse, repurpose and recycle culture still in its infancy.

Credit: OMR Solutions


Ecological impact
• Factories needed to manufacture digital goods.
• Factories need land to set-up.
• Land clearing creates friction in complex and sensitive balances.
• Issues seen in the past – loss of animal habitat, human re-settlement etc.
• Further human activity in the area leads to further complications.
• Wastes in different forms from the factories affect the surrounding ecology.

4G
Health hazards
• Production process involves handling harmful and carcinogenic agents, both for humans and other living
organisms.
• Poor posture, spinal problems and carpal tunnel syndrome etc.
• Reduced physical activity – heart disease, diabetes etc
• Sleep disorders
• Depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies – trolling, revenge porn
• Attention deficit
• Eyestrain4G
• Over stimulus
• Discarding e-waste as seen earlier.
Ethical issues
• Fair-pay
• Privacy
• Right to privacy – children and animals
• Piracy, copyrights and patents
• Digital divide
• Information poverty
• Misinformation
4G (fake news)
• Algorithmic bias Credit: minutes.co

• Human and machine differentiation


• Regulation of the dark-net
Action plans
• Curb the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude. Sending waste to countries hosting e-graveyards will backfire.
• Organisations are pledging to go carbon neutral and are succeeding through self reliance on power by investing
in ‘greening’ of their organisations.
• Countries are signing and beginning to respect the Paris Climate Accord.
• Carbon offset programs are being reviewed.
• Incentivising greener production values i.e. tax breaks.
• User interface design is now being inculcated with ‘green’ thinking.
• Software is going green.
• Incentivising e-scrappage.
Highly recommended watch:
• e-Waste disposal – ToxiCity: Life at Agbobloshie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mleQVO1Vd1I&feature=emb_title
• Ethical and psychological manipulation – The Social Dilemma (Netflix)
• Modern slavery and devices - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlDNfOXBFLA
• Undercover iPhone factory experience - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ItLIywwepY
• Films – Bicentennial Man (1999), Her (2013)
References
Chowdhury, G., & Koya, K. (2017). Information practices for sustainability: Role of iSchools in achieving the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). Journal of the Association for Information Science and
Technology, 68(9), 2128-2138.

Hogan, M., & Zeffiro, A. (2015). Out of Site & Out of Mind: Speculative Historiographies of Techno Trash. New American Notes Online, 7(2015), 1-8.

Williams, E. (2011). Environmental effects of information and communications technologies. Nature, 479(7373), 354-358.

Nkulu, C. B. L., Casas, L., Haufroid, V., De Putter, T., Saenen, N. D., Kayembe-Kitenge, T., ... & Nemery, B. (2018). Sustainability of artisanal mining of cobalt in DR Congo. Nature sustainability, 1(9), 495-504.

Cubitt, S. (2016). Finite media: Environmental implications of digital technologies. Duke University Press.

Capurro, R. (2009). Digital ethics. In GLOBAL FORUM ON CIVILIZATION AND PEACE (pp. 207-216).

Hatori, M., Gronfier, C., Van Gelder, R. N., Bernstein, P. S., Carreras, J., Panda, S., ... & Tsubota, K. (2017). Global rise of potential health hazards caused by blue light-induced circadian disruption in modern aging
societies. npj Aging and Mechanisms of Disease, 3(1), 1-3.

Saini, S., & Dhania, G. (2020). Cadmium as an environmental pollutant: ecotoxicological effects, health hazards, and bioremediation approaches for its detoxification from contaminated sites. In Bioremediation of
industrial waste for environmental safety (pp. 357-387). Springer, Singapore.

Ivanov, D. (2018). Revealing interfaces of supply chain resilience and sustainability: a simulation study. International Journal of Production Research, 56(10), 3507-3523.

Arnold, M. G., & Fischer, A. (2021). Digitization and Sustainability: Threats, Opportunities, and Trade-Offs. In Research Anthology on Digital Transformation, Organizational Change, and the Impact of Remote
Work (pp. 700-721). IGI Global.

Thomas, J. (2018). Sustainability Concerns, Digitisation and Globalisation: Impact on Marketing Thought and Practice (No. 287).

Pathmanandavel, S., & MacRobert, C. J. (2020). Digitisation, sustainability, and disruption–promoting a more balanced debate on risk in the geotechnical community. Georisk: Assessment and Management of Risk
for Engineered Systems and Geohazards, 14(4), 246-259.

Winkelhake, U. (2018). Roadmap for Sustainable Digitisation. In The Digital Transformation of the Automotive Industry (pp. 127-178). Springer, Cham.

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