8. Educate students about mobile devices' international supply chains, social media addiction, and health risks from radiation exposure. Prohibit mobile devices in schools. Use wired Internet access.
9. Challenge engineers to recognize electronics' ecological damage from cradle-to-grave, design biodegradable computers, biodegradable solar modules, and design for devices' second life.
10. Eliminate production of unnecessary goods such as private jets, fast fashion, children's laptops, electric skateboards and _________ (fill in the blank).
11. Prohibit new data storage centers and power plants for AI and bitcoin.
12. Employ data curators to eliminate unused data.
As for industrial applications and civil infrastructure, a reader sent me to Langenburg Tech, a modular, globally compliant system headquartered in Eugene. I say: give it due diligence. Put it on the question/chopping block.
These practices might move us toward not taking from the Earth faster than It can replenish. We just need motivation.
Changing as I write
As I write, Congress and some state legislatures face bills like Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper's BIG WIRES Act, which would likely impose large-scale power generators and storage on communities and give investors-- not electrical engineers, not community members opposed to substations or transmission lines near schools or homes-- control of electricity. The new, common message is that large-scale solar and wind facilities and EVs will resolve climate change-- and therefore communities have no choice but to welcome them.
But what society can sustain lack of choice and lack of cradle-to-grave due diligence on new developments?
When a journalist who reports on solar PVs' ecological harms learned I recommended small-scale solar for post-conflict situations, he raised red flags.
"Fair enough," I replied. Then I asked him what he'd recommend.
He agreed to think about it.
Indeed, dear reader, we need forums for informing ourselves, youth, legislators and investors about electricity's cradle-to-grave impacts-- and for strategizing how to reduce them while we keep power and telecommunications within local control.
Everyone who participates in this discussion is worthy of respect.
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