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PS 410A LECTURE 16 COMPUTERS IN A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY
I. Overview
A. Role in sustainable devt:
1. Envt'l monitoring & modeling
2. Information organizing
3. Creating sustainable technologies
4. Broadening public participation
B. Environmental liabilities
1. Electricity consumption
2. Paper consumption
3. Toxic chemicals
C. What is the place of computers in addressing the 2 great
tasks of the 21st C.: reconciling hopes for global prosperity with
the need for environmental integrity?
II. Key aspects of the industry
Dev'd by military, popularized by consumer economy.
A. Miniaturization
1. 1945 ENIAC: 17,000 vacuum tubes, 10' high, 6' deep, 60' long
-- 27 tons.
1950's: Transistors replace vacuum tubes
1960's: integrated circuits
1971: microprocessor = tiny silicon chip w/ thousands of
microscopic transistors etched onto it.
1990: Intel's Pentium microprocessor in most fact PCs
today: 3 million transistors on one chip.
-- That chip, if built of vacuum tubes would fill a 3
mile-long ENIAC cabinet.
B. Power
1. Amount of computing power that can be purchased for a given
price has been doubling every 2 years for 3 decades.
1980: about 2 million computers in the world
1993: about 148 million; 135 million are Pcs
2. Measured in MIPS, total power of world'c computers has risen
11-fold in last 6 years.
C. Industry
1. Hardware: $315 B/year, centered in U.S. & Japan;
some NICs now major producers (cheap labor)
2. Software: most profitable
Microsoft = largest -- $2.8 B/year in sales
3. Comparison w/ trad'l heavy industries
a. Mobility
i. Small size & high value of products makes them cheap to
ship long distances
ii. Computerization of mgmt. >> offshore prod.
iii. Highly competitive & mobile nature of computer industry
gives it enormous leverage over ntl. govt. & local
communities.
b. Great gap between production workers & mgmt.
i. 70% of mgrs. & 60% of professionals are white males;
only 17% of semi-skilled production workers are
white males; 63% are women, 1/2 of whom are non-white
(U.S.)
c. Unionization figures
Steel & auto 50%
Aircraft manufacturing 32%
Overall U.S. workforce 17%
Electronics 3%
III. Applications to envt'l protection
A. Monitoring
1. Satellite: atmospheric gas concentrations (ozone, greenhouse
gases), forest cover, crop health.
-- Intl. Geosphere-Biosphere Program, NASA, Earth Systems Science
a. Still no global monitoring of transboundary air pollution
flows, desertification, ultraviolet radiation, ocean
productivity, or biodiversity
2. Animals: computerized animal collars w/ radio transmitters,
motion sensors & sedative darts
3. Pollution tracking:
1986: U.S. environmentalists pushed through Emergency Planning
and Right-to-Know Act
>> world's most comprehensive pollution database
(Toxics Release Inventory).
-- 1st federal database ever required by Congress to be released
to the public in a computer-readable format.
-- Public knowledge has dramatically changed industrial
practices in some places.
-- Only covers approx. 5% of U.S.'s total toxic emissions.
-- Other countries copying this model.
-- Rio endorsed the concept of community right-to-know & urged
all nations to establish TRI-style tracking systems.
IV. Environmental Networking
A. Activists & Scientists use E-mail & computer conferencing
B. APC (Assoc. for Progressive Communications) = a group of 10 computer
networks on peace, envt'l, labor, developmt & human rights issues.
-- connects 17,000 activists in 94 countries; cheap.
-- some networks hard to use, don't communicate w/ others
C. Internet
= a rapidly expanding collection of computer networks that can talk
to each other
-- now serves approx. 11 million people
-- # of users & volume of info. flowing thru the system are doubling
every 5 months.
-- started as a link between computer centers doing mil. research in
U.S.; expanded to academic researchers in 1980's; now reaches into
over 50 countries.
V. Computers & Developing Countries
A. Many obstacles to DC computerization
1. Little hard currency to import computers & spare parts.
2. Few computer-literate office workers, programmers, technicians.
3. Electrical & telephone systems overburdened, outdated.
4. Software too expensive, mostly written for U.S. market, not in
native languages >> limits users to those fluent in colonial
language.
B. Nonetheless, computers can be powerful tools for DCs.
1. Though indivs. are too poor to own computers, they belong to orgs.
that do.
2. APC networks reach into dozens of Dcs, esp. Latin Am.
3. FidoNet: low-cost network in Dcs built by U.S. computer hobbyist.
-- overcomes inadequate phone systems by contacting each other at
night; keep dialing until they make a connection & only stop
transmitting when they are assured by machine at the other end
that all messages have been received.
-- can even operate w/ no phone system: "packet radios" transmit
their messages via low-orbit satellites. Motorola now dev'ing a
system of 77 such satellites that will give continuous coverage
everywhere on earth.
-- Doctors in sub-Saharan Africa get medical info.
VI. Computer Toxicity
A. Clean image, contrasted w/ heavy industry. Microprocessors made in
"clean" rooms where every dust particle is filtered from the air.
B. Silicon Valley contains the largest concentration of hazardous
waste cleanup sites in the U.S.
-- Only recognized because of efforts by citizen groups.
C. Miscarriage rates among workers & nearby residents much higher than
normal.
D. Coalition of citizens groups (Campaign for Responsible Technology)
persuaded Congress in 1992 to allocate 10% of the federal
contribution to SEMATECH (govt-indus. consortium to dev. U.S.
microprocessor tech.) for devt of envrmnt'ly sound chip production
processes.
E. Experience w/ CFC substitutes may provide precedent:
-- IBM found that soap & water is an easy substitute for one its
chemical processes.
VII. Resource Consumption
A. Consumes 5% U.S. electricity & is fastest growing segment.
-- mostly used by machines left on >> EPA's "Energy Star" computers
have special "sleep" mode
B. Paper: new laser printers do 2-sided printing; "printing" fonts use
much less paper than "typewriting" fonts.
C. Disposal of used computers: Next year, Germany will require
manufacturers of all electronic goods to take back their products
at the end of their useful lives.
-- Shd. never have to throw out computers.
>> Some devt. NGOs are funneling used computers to DCs.
VIII. Summary
A. Computers can either be centralized tools operated by technocrats
or useful tools for reducing the envt'l impacts of indus.
civilization, ending poverty & strengthening participatory democracy.
B. Either way, computers increase our control (Beniger's
"Control Revolution")