October 22 Safe Tech International News and Note
October 22 Safe Tech International News and Note
Tom Murphy, Einar, Wash. Post re Greenbank, Keith Shielding RVs, Roman, Global Network
“Sustainable means bunky to me.” I was just introduced to Tom Murphy’s Do the Math Using physics and estimation to assess energy, growth, options courtesy of Kate Kheel. Tom’s blog resonates with the intention of this offering.
Tom offers an organized post index. Under the “Growth and Sustainability” category he wrote, “Backing up to the launch of the site, one of my most important messages is that we need to shake the religion of growth. We simply can’t continue growing indefinitely. Either we use our brains to plot a trajectory into steady-state and hope it’s smooth, or we let nature decide how to deal with us. So start with the inaugural pair of posts: Galactic Scale Energy and Can Economic Growth Last? (perhaps also see the dinner conversation with an economist on this topic), then follow-up with Sustainable Means Bunkty to Me. In the same vein, you may want to check out Discovering Limits to Growth. Perhaps one of my more important contributions is The Energy Trap, describing the dis-incentive we will face in trying to pull out of an energy decline with renewable infrastructure. A common reaction to my statements of limited growth take to space as the answer. I am less convinced that this is a viable path. - Tom Murphy
Also by Tom Murphy: Overblown claims of energy “solutions” can be found in Garbage In, Garbage Out.
Also by Tom Murphy: Metastatic Modernity Video Series In July 2024 I launched a video series called Metastatic Modernity to provide a broad perspective on our place in this world so that we might understand modernity as a recent condition of a much older humanity, growing out of control and destroying ecological health and species left and right. The cancer metaphor pops right out. Appreciation of this context will help us make better decisions as individuals as modernity convulses its way out of the world. - Tom Murphy
I hope you enjoy his work, under INSRIRATION.
Canadian tech critic Paris Marx also has a really good series about Data Centers.
FEATURED:
KEITH CUTTER EMF WISDOM Affordable, Effective RV Shielding for Total EMF Reduction Survival Strategies [] Whether you are looking for a permanent low-EMF solution or a temporary refuge, this guide offers a vision for achieving a healthier, low-EMF environment, no matter where you are. [] Conclusion For those living with EMF sensitivities, this approach offers a flexible and effective solution to reduce RF exposure while maintaining the comfort and functionality of an RV or motorhome. You can create a much healthier living environment by combining thoughtful design, proper shielding, and the use of bottled gas and 12V DC power. Whether adapting the design to suit specific climates, materials, or needs, this strategy presents an excellent opportunity to achieve an ultra low-EMF lifestyle in a mobile home, offering safety and peace of mind for those in need.
FEATURED:
ALLIANCE FOR NATURAL HEALTH Lithium fields — out of sight, out of mind Content Sections Lithium mining: the hidden environmental costs Destroying the landscape Environmental Degradation Can the mining of the future offer a technological solution? Dwindling incentives and public responsibility Chile’s Atacama Desert is hailed as one of the Earth’s most extraordinary places. It’s the driest nonpolar desert on Earth, which stretches across around 600-miles (1,000 kilometres) in a piece of land between the coastal Cordillera de la Costa Mountain range and the Andes Mountains. The entire area is an oasis of geologic formations and has provided scientists with seemingly never-ending research opportunities. As with so many areas in our wonderous planet, it also has a history of being raped for its minerals. Prior to the 1930s, it was for nitrate minerals that were used in fertilisers and explosives. But more recently other minerals such as lithium, copper and iodine are also being mined. Lithium fields — out of sight, out of mind | Alliance For Natural Health
FEATURED:
EMF Basics | Who is the Power Couple? | Roman's story Roman S Shapoval We’d like to share a written interview Roman had with Unbekoming! Lies are Unbekoming Interview with Roman S. Shapoval My old ignorant self had no idea there was a relationship between electricity and health… I (Roman) discuss: My journey that led me to my current focus on health, light, and EMF How EMFs affect our health, in simple terms we can understand How we heal using our body’s DC electric circuit Simple steps everyone can take to reduce their EMF expsosure How light influences our well-being Why sunglasses harm our health How can the Schumann resonance optimize our brain health? How our body’s melanin uses UV to fight cancer How does infrared light improve our health? Basics of grounding, and why it can actually do more harm than good How can we find a balance b/w staying connected, and protected from tech?
News and Notes
AI PARIS MARX: Opinion | Toronto’s latest Nobel Prize winner is wrong: AI isn’t going to take over [] science fiction author Ted Chiang started criticizing the excitement, calling the technology “autocomplete on steroids.” Emily M. Bender, a computational linguist at the University of Washington, has similarly called out people like Hinton for conflating a chatbot’s ability to churn out text with the notion there’s any meaning behind it. Put more plainly: things like ChatGPT only appear to be intelligent because they’ve been designed mimic human language to a plausible enough degree. Their creators want to believe they’re creating intelligent machines, so that’s what they choose to see. When I spoke to Bender last year, she told me that people like Hinton “would rather think about this imaginary sci-fi villain that they can be fighting against, rather than looking at their own role in what’s going on in harms right now.” AI models present plenty of concerns beyond the supposedly existential and science fictional ones Hinton is most preoccupied with, including everything from their environmental costs to how they’re already being deployed against marginalized populations today. But when CNN asked Hinton about those concerns in May 2023, he said they “weren’t as existentially serious” and thus not as worthy of his time. For his contributions to his field, Hinton deserves recognition, and he’s received plenty of it. But just because he’s excelled at advancing AI models doesn’t mean we also need to turn to him for answers to the questions about their broader societal consequences. Hinton may be an intelligent man, but we shouldn’t assume the same about the technology he helped create. TORONTO STAR
AI: In depth: Why AI needs so much power – and what big tech will do to get it The reason for this nuclear power rush: the vast energy consumption of the computer chips (called graphics processing units or GPUs) that power the training of the large language models crucial to the development of AI. Meanwhile, a ChatGPT query needs nearly 10 times as much electricity to process as a Google search. []“The challenge in estimating this is that the companies are pretty coy about telling us their power usage,” said Chris. “But there is a settled understanding that the energy used by datacentres is going to increase hugely as AI becomes layered into everything we do.” The increase in demand already is significant: where the average datacentre drew 10MW of power a decade ago, they need 100MW today. And the biggest can already demand more than 600MW each. The New York-based Uptime Institute, which has created a benchmarking system that is now industry standard, predicts that whereas AI only accounts for 2% of global datacentres’ power use today, that will reach 10% by next year. “The growth in power consumption is not linear,” Chris said. “In the same way that we used to have whacking great transistors behind our TVs and now we have flatscreens with eco-friendly modes, they are getting more efficient. But that doesn’t mean it’s not going upwards – just that it’s going up more slowly.” []Big tech companies insist they are leaning into renewable sources of power as much as possible – and argue that AI could ultimately be a crucial tool to limit the damage caused by the climate crisis. It is true that tech firms’ investment in renewable sources of energy has played an important part in their growth. But claiming that AI will help defeat the climate crisis is a theoretical benefit that won’t be seen until some point in the fairly distant future. And there are claims that emissions caused by current energy usage from datacentres owned by the likes of Google, Microsoft and Meta are much higher than they admit publicly. In this piece published last month, Isabel O’Brien reported that big tech firms are using renewable energy credits – which may not actually be used to power the datacentres themselves and which may not even reduce emissions – to artificially deflate their reported emissions. That means the actual figures could be more than seven times higher than the numbers they report. THE GUARDIAN
CHILDREN PHONES The UK banned students’ phones from schools. Should US schools do the same? Pew Research published a poll last week surveying 5,110 US adults on cellphone bans in schools. The results might surprise you, as they did me. Quotes from the poll’s findings:
• 68% of US adults say they support a ban on middle- and high-school students using cellphones during class.
• 36% support banning middle- and high-school students from using cellphones during the school day.
• Younger adults are less supportive of cellphone bans, in class and for the entire school day. Fewer than half of adults under 30 (45%) say they support banning students from using cellphones during class. This share rises to 67% among those aged 30 to 49 and 80% among those aged 50 and older.
• Reasons why: among those who support a ban during class, almost all (98%) say a reason they back it is because students would have fewer distractions in class.
• Of those who oppose a ban, 86% say that parents should be able to reach their child when needed. (THE GUARDIAN, LINK NOT YET PUBLISHED ONLINE) PEW STUDY
CHILDREN SOCIAL MEDIA JEAN TWENGE: What the Lancet doesn’t want you to know about girls and self-harm Suggesting a link to social media is apparently too controversial
DATA VAMPIRES: PARIS MARX, AUDIO PODCASTS Data Vampires, a special four-part series from Tech Won’t Save Us. Episode 1: Data Vampires: Going Hyperscale (Episode 1) Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are the dominant players in the cloud market. Around the world, they’re building massive hyperscale data centers that they claim are necessary to power the future of our digital existence. But they also increase their power over other companies and come with massive resource demands communities are getting fed up with. Is their future really the one we want? This is episode 1 of Data Vampires, a special four-part series from Tech Won’t Save Us. Data Vampires: Going Hyperscale (Episode 1) - Episodes - Tech Won’t Save Us 32 minutes Episode 2 Data Vampires: Opposing Data Centers (Episode 2) As hyperscale data centers move into communities, they come with significant water and energy demands that some are not willing to put up with. We go to Ireland, Spain, and Chile to learn about the effects of data centers on the ground and why some communities are fighting back. They’re asking whether the tradeoffs they’re being expected to make are really necessary. Data Vampires: Opposing Data Centers (Episode 2) - Episodes - Tech Won’t Save Us 32 minutes
EMF: The West Virginia town of Green Bank has become a refuge for ‘electrosensitive’ people - The Washington Post They speak in a language that sounds almost foreign: technical and jargon-y, but fluent in the countless ways to feel pain. They also talk about what they have lost: people, mostly. For Brandon, his motorcycle shop and his family. For Sue, her life in Westchester. For Audra, her Pittsburgh friends. But they have found each other. Their well-being might come at a cost, but you can’t put a price on being understood.
EMF EINAR NORWAY: The story of a German radio enthusiast in protective clothing Ulrich Weiner Ulrich Weiner is a German who started early as a radio amateur and enthusiast – with up to 15 antennas on the roof of his car when he drove around and tested. As a 20-year-old, he had built up a significant business in the sale of all sorts of wireless – and ended up as a "radiation refugee" in a caravan in the woods in the few spots in Germany where coverage is still minimal. His story gives an insight into an existence that is difficult to imagine for those of us who are fortunate enough not to be affected by the strains of today's microwaves, but can quickly be. The story of a German radio enthusiast in protective clothing | I have something on my mind...
ENERGY ELCTRICITY PUERTO RICO: A ‘Flood’ Of Solar Panels Threatens Puerto Rico’s Farmers — And Neighbors’ Lives This story is the second installment of a three-part series on Puerto Rico’s energy transition. Read Part 1 here. Part 3 will publish on Monday. The project, known as Ciro One, is the largest solar and battery array in Puerto Rico, and appeared to redirect the flow of water directly into El Coquí. And it’s just the beginning of this region’s transformation into the island’s hub of photovoltaic energy. Another solar farm more than twice the size is now underway just down the road, backed by nearly $1 billion in federal loans. Legal experts say the location and the process that went into locating the projects flouted Puerto Rico’s conservation laws that, if followed, might have helped avoid the issues now mounting. Worse yet, Puerto Rico’s secretary of agriculture, Ramón González Beiró, has a direct financial stake in the upcoming solar farm, leasing some of the land his agency is supposed to protect to the developers. “We’re being flooded,” Santi said. “They’re flooding us with panels.” The conflict illustrates a paradox of Puerto Rico’s haphazard reconstruction since the 2017 storm that left thousands dead and triggered the second-longest blackout in world history. It also highlights the promise and peril of easing requirements on companies seeking federal approval for energy projects as lawmakers in Washington debate legislation to speed up the permitting process — showing both how circumventing not-in-my-backyard types can get construction started sooner and stir resentments that motivate lasting opposition. What made this area a hotbed for building out the kind of giant solar projects the U.S. government says is needed to wean Puerto Rico off fossil fuels, however, is the land itself. Nestled between Puerto Rico’s dramatic central mountain range and the azure waters of the Bay of Jobos, the plains here served for centuries as a hub for sugarcane plantations, irrigated with mineral-rich freshwater that flows downhill southward toward the sea. The same flat fields where rows of grassy stalks once converted the sun’s rays into sweetness are now lined with glinting gray panels harvesting light for electricity. The solar boom isn’t slowing. From a hilltop north of the town, construction crews continued working on the Ciro One solar park in July. Built by the Arizona-based developer DEPcom Power, the facility is owned by Putnam Bridge Funding, a Connecticut-headquartered real estate firm controlled by the former hedge fund investors benefiting from Puerto Rico’s controversial tax haven laws. Opponents who complain that large-scale solar plants take up too much land and damage the environment say equipping every rooftop in Puerto Rico with solar panels and batteries offers a better alternative. The community center in El Coquí has solar panels that kept the air conditioning cranked high on a hot July afternoon, and provided a place for residents to charge phones and cool down when the power went out for days during recent disasters, whether it was this summer’s heat wave or Hurricane Fiona. “The land should be used to plant and the rooftops should be used for panels,” said Fernando López, 14, a high school student who blames the solar farm for the flood that destroyed his home during the 2022 storm. MSN OT PART 1: The LNG Facility In Puerto Rico That Could Become A Full-On Nightmare Gas disasters are the rise, and an import terminal in densely populated San Juan is operating without federal permits. HUFF POST
FCC: FCC Investigating Data Caps In June 2023, FCC Chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel announced that the FCC was going to investigate the impact of data caps imposed by ISPs on broadband usage. For those who don’t know what a data cap is, it is an arbitrary cap on the amount of home broadband usage in a given month. Most ISPs with data caps charge extra for exceeding a data cap – and customers who won’t pay more typically get throttled to very slow speeds. Most ISPs don’t use data caps, and most home broadband usage is unlimited. But there are still ISPs that enforce data caps. [] The FCC opened a Notice of Inquiry on October 15 to examine data caps. This is an interesting document that talks about the ever-increasing amount of home broadband usage. I’ve written a number of blogs about this issue over the years. OpenVault reported at the end of 2023 that the average broadband customer in the country uses 561 terabytes per month of broadband – which is download and upload usage combined. [] The investigation is interesting, because the FCC doesn’t currently have the authority to do anything about data caps. They would have gained that authority from their decision to implement Title II authority over broadband. But that order is sitting in a court and the FCC is only going to be able to do anything about broadband and data caps if and when they win that court dispute. POTS AND PANS
HEALTH MERCOLA: Cellular Health Revolution: Unveiling Hidden Threats and Empowering Solutions In my recent appearance on The Jimmy Dore Show, we discussed how mitochondrial dysfunction, caused by modern toxins, is at the root of many diseases. ATP production has decreased by up to 75% compared to a century ago I shared insights from my latest book, “Your Guide to Cellular Health: Unlocking the Science of Longevity and Joy,” including that seed oils, like soybean and corn oil, are major culprits in damaging cellular health, while natural sugars can be beneficial when used wisely Endocrine-disrupting chemicals and EMFs from devices like cellphones and Wi-Fi routers pose significant risks to mitochondrial function, necessitating practical steps to reduce exposure MERCOLA
HEALTH MERCOLA NEW BOOK: Your Guide to Cellular Health: Unlocking the Science of Longevity and Joy
HEALTH 56 EINAR NORWAY: Mortality in Norway fluctuated in line with 3G shutdown and 5G development Mortality in Norway fluctuated in line with 3G shutdown and 5G rollout | I have something on my mind...
INDUSTRY: Telcos have the perfect edge cloud infrastructure for AI up their sleeve Telecom companies are sitting on thousands of old central office (CO) facilities sprinkled across the U.S. that could be just right for serving latency-sensitive artificial intelligence (AI) applications. And it seems they’re waking up to this fact as they continue efforts to retire the old copper network gear previously housed in these structures. FIERCE NETWORK
INSPIRATION: The Simple Story of Civilization No Facile Solution This condition seems unlikely to be solved by technology. Wouldn’t we say that technology is a primary ingredient of the illness? Cleverness and an illusion of control got us here, and they are not our best tools for extracting ourselves from the mess. []Since our civilization is not built on a foundation of sustainable principles, it is no surprise that we find it now to be utterly unsustainable. Unsustainable means certain failure, by the way. Thus, our civilization was custom-built for failure. []I’m not interested in fantastical or magical thinking. The suggestion—against mounting evidence to the contrary—that we could (or should) maintain the architecture for this ecologically devastating mode of living for any significant duration strikes me as simply wishful and also heartbreaking. I’d like to get beyond that and be hard-nosed about what can really happen, subject to planetary limits: most importantly, preserving habitat and biodiversity. The Simple Story of Civilization | Do the Math
NATURE EDUCATION NEW BOOK WALDORF: Earthwards Transformative Ecological Education Earthwards shifts the lens from using nature as a throwaway object to understanding nature as a living organism. This crucial paradigm shift comes through peak experiences of nature. HERE Katherine Burke asked herself, “How do we teachers help these capable, yet vulnerable young people develop the ecological literacy and personal resilience they need?” HERE
NATURE INSPIRATION Gavin Mounsey: August, September (and October's) Book Club Review of "The Spirit of Trees: Science, Symbiosis and Inspiration" This post offers a review of The Spirit of Trees: Science, Symbiosis and Inspiration
POLITICS: Elon’s American ‘technopoly’ Musk has spoken at length about his desire for humanity to become a “spacefaring civilization” and colonize Earth’s moon or Mars, even specifying which type of government he thinks would fit an off-world colony (direct democracy). He’s been equally specific about what kind of government he thinks is necessary on Earth to enable that future, namely, one that will ease up on regulating his vast business empire. What Musk doesn’t often address is why humanity should do this in the first place. His most commonly articulated reason is that it’s a hedge against existential risks on Earth, but the lack of a more affirmative case (aside from “we want Starfleet to be real,” as he added Saturday) reflects the core of his and some tech-world brethren’s increasing mind-meld with the former president: their belief that a kind of restless change, absent any inherent quality, goal or direction, is a virtue in its own right. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/digital-future-daily/2024/10/21/elons-american-technopoly-00184706
SMART METERS: Smart meters coming to PNM customers Oct. 20—The Public Service Company of New Mexico has the OK from state regulators to install smart meters for its customers. The utility also must offer a $10 opt-out option for people who don't want the smart meters. The approval came despite repeated attempts to convince the Public Regulation Commission otherwise from individuals who fear that radioactive frequency emissions from the smart meters will harm human health. YAHOO
SPACE REGULATIONS: Starlink Reveals the Government’s Problem of Picking Winners and Losers The government has a history of preferencing government-owned networks at the expense of private alternatives. [] REGULATIONS: Starlink Reveals the Government’s Problem of Picking Winners and Losers The government has a history of preferencing government-owned networks at the expense of private alternatives. BROADBAND BREAKFAST
SURVEILLANCE: Smart TVs a ‘Vast System of Digital Surveillance’ That Targets Everyone, Especially Kids Calling it a “privacy nightmare,” the Center for Digital Democracy issued a report on how the streaming TV industry has evolved into a vast data-driven viewer surveillance apparatus, transforming people’s TVs into monitoring, tracking and targeting devices. CHD
WARFARE: Keep Space for Peace Week
webinar video now available Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space GN Space Week issues webinar video Click to watch webinar here 90 MINUTES Links to all GN social media sites at https://linktr.ee/space4peace
WARFARE CA: Only real changes; titled it "Navy 'Innovation' Center" and struck "Navy" in "Navy groundwater contamination" Deadly Navy 'Innovation' Center The planned Navy Innovation Center for “warfighting capabilities” will cause irreparable harm to the Monterey Peninsula and ocean. The Navy's track record of environmental damage is well-known – wanton disregard for life, health, and safety, including its own personnel, maiming and killing whales and dolphins, poisoning ocean, land, and drinking water – while refusing accountability and transparency. In its scant Environmental Assessment for the Center, the Navy refused to evaluate coastal zone management, hazardous materials and waste, public health and safety, or recreation impacts, or existing local impacts – Navy groundwater contamination from the airport flowing into Laguna Grande, radioactive contamination under NPS, killing historic trees along Del Monte Avenue, sonar, new 5G on the beach, and violating federal laser limits. Its microwave emissions harm surrounding residential areas and forests, and those emissions will increase with the new center. The Navy's nuclear waste dumps near the Farallons and Half Moon Bay impact the bay. This Center is incompatible with the viability and health of this community and the Earth. Please oppose it. (Published in this week's edition www.carmelpinecone.com)
WARFARE CLIMATE: 1 big thing: Pentagon boosts climate startups The DOD is America's single biggest energy customer and one of the largest energy consumers in the world. It spent $16.5 billion on energy in fiscal 2023. Cutting that level of fuel consumption doesn't simply save money. It can also help the military services be nimbler and more resilient. Zoom in: Air Company, a startup that began as a vodka distiller, announced a $65 million contract last year to supply the Air Force with jet fuel made from captured CO2. The Pentagon has also turned to climate-tech startups for tools that secure food supply chains, generate power without relying on shaky electric grids, and map oceans and seafloors, as well as advanced battery technology. AXIOS
WARFARE; SpaceX prevails over ULA, wins military launch contracts worth $733 million https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/10/spacex-sweeps-latest-round-of-military-launch-contracts/
ACTION:
Please respond to a recent article in the Washington Post on those who moved to Green Bank, WVa to get away from EMFs. If you're not a subscriber and can't leave an online comment to the article, here's the author's email: travis.andrews@washpost.com. It was a thoughtful article delving into the reasons why they moved there, although it did not go into the science. It would be great if he would do another article delving deeper into the subject. The West Virginia town of Green Bank has become a refuge for ‘electrosensitive’ people - The Washington Post