Every time I want to read something I must use a system which consumes great amounts of fossil fuels to operate, to generate the power which allows my humble devices to access the files. This is most assuredly not better for the environment. My devices consume fossil resources as well in their production and in their operation. A book has a static cost. Once made it does not degrade at the same rate as my devices become obsolete.
As we speak there are data farms being planned and built which will consume enough power to require NEW nuclear generating plants. This is NOT the same impact as printing, distributing and storing paper books and magazines.
The overall problem has 2 important layers.: 1. Electronic devices lead to a different offset of usage but a very distinct pattern of energy and resource consumption. 2. There are roughly 8.1 billion people on the planet, with many more arriving every hour. If we surmise that most of them will require electronic devices along with the infrastructure to connect them and the logistical support to maintain databases such as might replace Libraries and bookstores, to say nothing of Universities or Coffee shops, we rapidly arrive at an energy consumption level which is entirely unsustainable.
Or a few of us could colonize the Moon, or Mars, and leave this planet behind.
I recognize that turning back technology comes at a price. So too does rushing forward. We do not yet live in the world Star Trek predicts where personal property is minimal, and money is no object to concern us. I am not a luddite and do not intend to bury my devices rather than use them. I am also a human. As such I find there are tactile learning and personal experience benefits to handling and using actual objects rather than their digital facsimiles. I do not require that everyone must do as I do, nor do I assume their experiences are entirely the same as mine.
However, I have seen what happens when people refuse to read books or news papers as sources of information. Even worse I have seen what happens when a very few people decide what everyone else may read in any form. One problem with digital resources is that eventually someone has the responsibility and the power to determine who may access which information, when they may do it, and how much they may see, or not see. We are currently seeing that play out in Congress and several state legislatures regarding TikTok; who owns it, what they are doing with user data, who may access certain kinds of content and who gets to decide about access.
Another cost which is hidden is environmental and has several dimensions as well. This week in my town we are talking about a proposed rare metals mine being established near the headwaters of the river which flows through this valley. Such a mine will involve a large open pit, toxic leaching pools to separate the rare minerals from the dirt, an enormous dust cloud typical of open caste mining, and the daily shipment of ores from the mine along a road through isolated state forest land more suited to foot traffic than industrial heavy truck traffic. In addition the ore trucks will travel the length of the valley, roughly 90 miles, to arrive at the railhead for loading. This is not to mention the vehicle traffic supporting the mine operation, miners, engineers, and other workers traveling to and from the mine. All of this to take place in a valley currently prized by fly fishers and other outdoor folk as among the best in Montana.
The debate runs that "we must dig to have a future" versus "there will be no future life in the valley if they do dig". I know the answer to this argument. The costs to valley residents and anyone who depends on the valley as a place to recreate outdoors, along with the wildlife population, along with any remediation of the mining effects vastly outweigh the cash value of what will be dug up. There may also be down river and down wind effects as yet unvalued. Our river flows into the Columbia so any chemical contamination will go there too. At the head of the valley astride that river sits the 2nd largest city in Montana. Any down wind or down stream effluent from the mine will have a substantial effect there as well.
However all of that is of little matter to some who own the mining leases on the land. It is such a concern of theirs that their interests were recently sold to the largest mineral extraction company on the planet which curiously is located in Switzerland. Speaking of remote access...
I think you can see where this is heading... And then there is the law of unintended consequences.
Simple, though, I think not.
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