That Which We Sow

A couple of reports from the environmental fronts, nearly concurrent in their arrival, remind us that one technology sector still needs to be addressed.

At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Professor Robert Dickinson of the Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences presented evidence that “though significant uncertainty remains regarding the amount of global warming that will occur over the next century or two, scientists agree that the trend will continue for the next hundred years even if fossil fuel consumption is dramatically reduced. Global warming will persist at least a century even if emissions are curbed now.” This issue suffers from a lack of shock, on the scale of Sputnik or September 11, 2001. Until the basement of the White House begins to flood, or fashionable Manhattanites are donning scuba gear to go bar-hopping, merely a few will pay attention to the warnings from the scientific community. (And think of what the Eskimos will be asking for beachfront property.) One interesting idea from Professor Dickinson’s speech — part of a U.S. Department of Energy research initiative called sequestration is examining ways to capture the gases and put them in places other than the atmosphere. Combined with reduced consumption of fossil fuels, the process may speed mitigation of the problem. An interesting design challenge.

Then a detailed study reported in Reuters asserts that 50 to 80 percent of electronics waste collected for recycling in the Western United States is put on container ships bound for Asia, where waste handling costs are far lower and environmental rules lax. The authors of the report estimate, roughly, that the 500 million computers presently in the world contain 6.32 billion pounds of plastics, 1.58 billion pounds of lead and 632,000 pounds of mercury. At some point, each of those 500 million machines will wind up on a trash heap somewhere.

If you’re old enough to read this magazine, you’ve heard enough speeches about what’s happening to the global environment, so I won’t use this page as a soapbox to rail against industry, plead for donations, nor evince images of pretty flowers and streams. Still, it’s important to keep this information on file in our collective consciousness, as each product that issues forth from the design community inevitably impacts something other than customers of our same genus and species.