Most of us don't know what's involved in manufacturing smartphones, solar panels, cars, appliances or TVs. We don't know about the water, energy, extractions or shipping. We don't know about the smelters or child labor or slave labor. The Internet makes us think that everything we want is within reach. Peter S. Goodman says that recent events have illuminated some supply chain problems-- and changed our perception that we can easily get what we want:
When COVID quarantines shut down Chinese factories, medical supplies, toilet paper and electronics became scarce.
To avoid missiles fired by Yemeni Houthi rebels (expressing solidarity with Palestinians) at ships approaching the Suez Canal, ships that move goods from Asia to Europe began traveling the long way around Africa, adding two weeks to shipments and increasing prices.
Drought has lowered the Panama Canal's water levels-- and restricted the number of vessels that can pass through it.
Manufactured goods arriving at U.S. ports need dockworkers, railroad workers and truck drivers-- whose insistence on higher wages has challenged retailers' profits and consumers' prices.
Some U.S. and European retailers have moved production to Vietnam, India or Mexico. Of course, this does not change consumers' perception that everything we want is within reach. It does not address our problem's root.
At the root, we depend on goods (food, electronics, vehicles) that involve supply chains beyond our control. We depend on things made far from our own bioregion. (A bioregion is defined by its watershed. The U.S. has five major watersheds.)
To address our problems' roots-- call it a bitter remedy or a wild idea that would need major collective commitment and action-- could we move toward living with food, medicine, tools and vehicles made only within our bioregion?
I appreciate that such radical change would not come easy. But the challenges we face from depending on the global super-factory do not look good, either.
VULNERABLE INFRASTRUCTURE
Almost all internet traffic-- including Zoom calls, videos and social media-- depends on fiber optics laid on the ocean floor. Data travels from a mobile device to a nearby cell tower, to underground fiber optic cables, then to the ocean's bottom. In The Undersea Network, Wall Street Journal reporter Nicole Starosielski explains that the Internet's undersea cable network faces increasing threats. When an undersea cable breaks and severs Internet access, local economies can be devastated-- and recovery efforts are hampered because people have no way to communicate. The question about cables' impacts on marine health remains.
Electrical technician Sean Polacik explains to Keith Cutter that smart meters aren't meters. They're data-collecting computers. Analog meters measured electricity use, worked as surge protectors, and did not generate dirty electricity.
Say that small businesses form economic infrastructure. In The Everything War: Amazon's Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power, Dana Mattioli explains how Amazon has "lied, spied and cheated its way to the top" of the U.S. economy-- and harmed (decimated?) small businesses.
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