A longer-lasting Internet starts with knowing our region’s mineral deposits

by Katie Singer

More than one reader rightly corrected me when my first draft of this substack called the Internet “sustainable.” As long as it uses finite mineral deposits that took billions of years to form—and generates waste that takes the Earth who knows how long to absorb—the Internet cannot be sustained.  

            Consider copper. For every kilogram of mined copper, at least 210 kilograms of waste are generated. By 2025, demand for copper will exceed supply.  

            So—with thanks to the readers who caught me, I hereby stop calling the Internet sustainable; and I’ve renamed this substack “A longer-lasting Internet starts with knowing our region’s mineral deposits.”

Does creating a longer-lasting Internet start with every Internet user learning the supply chain of one substance in their computer…and about the mineral deposits in their region?

A few years ago, a telecom engineer-friend’s wife asked him about public and wildlife health impacts from exposure to telecommunications’ radio-frequencies. “I have advanced degrees in engineering,” he told her. “I know this stuff is harmless.” Anyway, he researched her questions—and the ecological impacts of manufacturing, operating and discarding telecom devices and infrastructure. He realized that during engineering school, he never considered such questions. His research changed his thinking—and he began exploring ways to reduce radiofrequency exposure and the Internet’s energy consumption.

Meanwhile, another friend introduced me to bioregionalism, an orientation defined by your own watershed, landforms, animal, bird and plant communities and mineral deposits. A bioregion is defined by geography—not political boundaries.

Of course, we rarely define human communities now by place, since Internet access—and airplanes—provide international connections 24/7. Infrastructure and tools are no longer limited by the energy and ores available in any one bioregion. For more than a century, we’ve made infrastructure and tools from ores, chemicals and water sourced and processed from multiple continents. Living beyond our ecological means is all most of us have ever known.

This is not sustainable.

To create a longer-lasting Internet, would users research their own computer’s supply chains and the mineral deposits in their bioregion?

In my (March, 2023) Substack, Digital Enlightenment, I list about 125 substances in a smartphone. Consider it an invitation to trace one substance in your computer’s supply chain—and share your research.

Last week, I offered questions for getting to know  your watershed.

Today, I’ve got questions about your region’s geophysics and mining operations.

The geology in your backyard
1. What kind of soil is prevalent in your neighborhood? (Topsoil? Clay? Sandy?)

2. What grows best in your soil? How many feet would you have to dig through to reach bedrock?
3. Defining your bioregion by your watershed’s boundaries, what are the primary geologic events that shaped your bioregion?
4. From what direction do storms usually come to your region? The door or windows that get wettest in a storm may give you clues—and the answers may change seasonally. Or, storms may come from several directions.
5. Where is the closest boundary between tectonic plates—or the closest fault line?
6. When was the last major fire in your region? What caused the fire? How did it affect your landscape?
   7. What kinds of minerals and ores are found in your region? Which ones are mined? Have any mines been abandoned? FYI, there are over 13,000 mines in the U.S.
7. What industries (telecommunications, EVs, solar PVs, industrial wind, batteries, jewelry) use these rocks and minerals?
8. Does any processing (smelting, refining) take place in your area? If not, where do the materials mined in your region get refined?
   10. Does processing or refining release toxins into water, land and/or air? If so, how are wildlife and human health affected?

Mining the Internet’s raw materials by forced labor

Telecommunications’ raw materials also raise questions about modern day slavery. Tin, tantalum, tungsten, gold, copper, silver, cobalt, nickel, lithium, aluminum and coltan—used for electronics, solar PVs, e-vehicles—may be mined by forced labor. North Korea, Eritrea, Mauritania, Turkey, India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria and the U.S. have the world’s highest rates of modern-day slavery. According to a report from the International Labour Organization, in 2021, 50 million people lived in modern slavery.

Australia, Canada, the U.S. and European countries have Modern Slavery Acts. These require companies with annual revenues of more than $100 million to identify, prevent and mitigate modern slavery in their operations and supply chains, and to publish an annual report on these actions. California’s 2015 Transparency in Supply Chain Act requires large retailers and manufacturers doing business in California to disclose their efforts to eradicate modern slavery within their supply chain on their websites.

So, question #11: Does any mining or refining of your region’s ores involve slave labor? If so, are there any efforts to eradicate it?

Resources  

Your state’s environment Department should have info about your region’s mining and refining operations.

For a map of inactive metal mining operations in the U.S.: https://skytruth-org.carto.com/viz/751b8218-5f4a-4ad9-89dd-f2b5b0f5a318/embed_map

U.S. copper mines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_copper_mines_in_the_United_States

Anatomy of an AI System, Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler’s extraordinary 2018 map of the human labor, data and planetary resources involved in making Amazon’s Echo.

Kara, Siddharth, Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives, St. Martin’s Press, 2023.

Klinger, Julie Michelle, Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes, Cornell University Press, 2017.

Klovig, Sebastian, “Tech sector efforts to root out forced labour are failing: Digitally mapping supply chains to identify forced labour and slavery is no longer a technology problem, but a lack of government enforcement and corporate inaction are major barriers to effective change,” ComputerWeekly.com, 01 Jul 2022.

KnowTheChain.org, a resource for corporations and investors who aim to reduce their risk of purchasing materials secured by forced labor, reported in 2020 that most tech corporations remain “negligent in their efforts,” and lack the tools needed to tackle—let alone eliminate—human rights abuses in mining and other supply chain stations.

Lapniten, Karlston, “Struggle endures for Philippine community pitted against gold miner,” Mongababy News, 9 November 2021.

Northern Confluence Initiative, Nikki Skuce, June, 2023.

O’Brien Moscoso, Clau, “Peruvian Coup Regime Approves Lithium Mining as Puno Rejects Plan Without Nationalization,” Black Agenda Report, 26 Apr 2023.

Paley, Julia, “A Conflict in Chile Over Minerals Needed for Clean Energy: The world needs rare earth elements. But this mine threatens the ecosystem and well-being of the people of this Chilean community,” Foreign Policy in Focus, April 25, 2023.

Piasecki Poulsen, Frank, “Blood in the Mobile,” 2010 documentary about a cassiterite mine in Democratic Republic of Congo.

Pitron, Guillaume, The Rare Metals War: The Dark Side of Clean Energy and Digital Technologies, Scribe US, 2020.

Protest Barrick, a campaign against what used to be the world’s largest gold miner, Canadian Barrick Gold.

Simon Michaux: “The Arcadians,” by Nate Hagens. Dec. 14, 2022. https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/49-simon-michaux

U.S. Geological Survey’s Mineral Deposit Database.

War on Want, A Material Transition: Exploring supply and demand solutions for renewable energy minerals, March, 2021. https://waronwant.org/resources/a-material-transition

Wilbert, Max, “Water Protectors Sued by (lithium) Mining Company Ask Court to Dismiss Case,” August 23, 2023. See also “When Land I Love Holds Lithium” Katie Singer’s report about efforts to prevent Lithium Americas Corporation from mining lithium at Thacker Pass, Nevada.

KATIE SINGER writes about technology’s impacts on nature. She believes that if she’s not aware of the problem, then she can’t be part of the solution. She dreams that every user learns about the supply chain of one substance in their computer. Her books include An Electronic Silent Spring, Honoring Our Cycles and The Wholeness of a Broken Heart. Visit https://katiesinger.substack.com, https://OurWeb.tech and https://ElectronicSilentSpring.com.