diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore index 377f949..3b3a9fe 100644 --- a/.gitignore +++ b/.gitignore @@ -1,4 +1,6 @@ +output output/ output/* print/ print/* +__pycache__/* diff --git a/content/favicon.ico b/content/favicon.ico new file mode 100644 index 0000000..19417f5 Binary files /dev/null and b/content/favicon.ico differ diff --git a/content/mel-hogan-pandemics-dark-cloud.md b/content/mel-hogan-pandemics-dark-cloud.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5cb4c70 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/mel-hogan-pandemics-dark-cloud.md @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ +Title: The Pandemic\'s Dark Cloud +Author: Mél Hogan +Category: Articles + +# The Pandemic\'s Dark Cloud + +As the pandemic settled into consciousness across the globe, humans +devolved. People in countries where the response to COVID-19 was most +mismanaged started to snack a lot.[^1] Pre-sliced packaged charcuterie. +Ritz crackers. Oreo cookies. In their growing helplessness, people also +sharply increased their consumption of alcohol, especially women in the +US.[^2] For some it was drugs. Those lucky enough to keep their job +doubled down on work, staying at their stations or desks for longer +hours -- part avoidance and part stuckness into systems that could offer +no other plan. + +The dread by now is cumulative. Pick your pain: covid19, white +supremacy, climate catastrophe. People are reaching new levels of +"doomscrolling" on social media, playing online video games, and +"binge-watching" Netflix as ways to pass the time, waiting on the virus +to run its course, or for politicians to make a plan. As things shut +down, Zoom quickly took over as the way to communicate at a safe social +distance. Education quickly became clicking at screens. No more shopping +in person meant ordering by way of interfaces. All of these screens more +or less allowed things to continue, if not as normal, as a viable +alternative in the meantime. It remains to be seen if this online world +we've adopted so quickly is the new normal, and here to stay, or if +it'll reflect to us the inefficiencies of how we lived before and save +us from ourselves. Or, maybe it will call into question the terrible +inequities that are only made more evident by this pandemic. + +By April, the news media were already reporting that lockdowns had meant +cleaner air and clearer water.[^3] Satellite images showed less +pollution over China and the US. Animals were found roaming freely in +different parts of India.[^4] "Nature is healing" became a popular meme +celebrating the lessening of human impact and nature's recovery.[^5] But +were the effects of lockdown, or quarantine, of humans being trapped in +their homes, and of doing everything online, truly a more sustainable +way of going about life? Had the turn to "the cloud" proven to be the +weightless way forward? Social isolation and disinformation propagation +problems aside, could the internet become a tool to inadvertently save +the environment? + +In thinking of the internet and the many devices connected to it, these +account for approximately 2-4% of global greenhouse emissions, which +only promise to double by 2025.[^6] Data centres and vast server farms +(where data is stored and transmitted) draw more than 80% of their +energy from fossil fuel power stations. Online video alone -- porn, +Netflix, YouTube, Zoom -- generated 60% of the world's total data flows +before covid19 hit. A Google search uses as much energy as cooking an +egg or boiling water in an electric kettle.[^7] Yearly emails for work +(and not accounting for spam) have been calculated to be equal in terms +of CO2 emissions to driving 320 kilometres.[^8] These numbers have +likely gone up considerably since the pandemic.[^9] This way of living +wasn't sustainable then, and it certainly isn't now. + +There are search engines (eg. Ecosia[^10]) and add-ons (eg. Carbonalyser +by The Shift Project,[^11] green-algorithms.org[^12]) that help measure +user impacts on the environment, but these miss addressing the bigger +questions -- such as moving away from confronting personal use to the +systemic, material, and ideological issues baked into the internet. Why +is the internet like this? The question is more political than it is +purely technological. It's more emotional, even, than it is political. +Because we've drifted so far away from understanding nature as inherent +to humans and non-humans alike, towards unrelenting and exploitative +capitalism and extractivism, it means we now have these massively +entangled systems that reinforce one another, generate profit for the +very few, but in the end benefit nothing and nobody.[^13] These systems +are harder to abolish and undo, so instead we turn to solutions that +lessen their impacts, and we consider the rest inevitable -- or worse, +natural. We might, for example, shift data centers to cooler climates to +save on cooling costs, we might develop more efficient software, we +might offer carbon offsetting and plant trees, but none of these +technofixes reach the heart of the our current predicament: our +solutions and our problems originate from the same short-sighted, +greed-driven, competitive, and market-driven agendas that caused this +global deadly pandemic in the first place. + +In 2020, we are generating 50 million tons worldwide of electronic +waste, with an annual growth of 5%.[^14] This means that we produce +e-waste at three times the rate that humans reproduce. Much e-waste is +toxic and severely impacts land, water, plants, animals, and humans. +This damage is permanent. At the other end of the supply chain, fields +of wheat and corn have become lakes of toxic sludge to accommodate the +rare earth mining industry.[^15] From Mongolia to China to the Congo, +people labour in dangerous conditions, mining through the ore-laden mud +to find rare minerals to power our devices. Elsewhere, people work +endless shifts to assemble computers, phones, tablets. It should be no +surprise then that the internet that connects this all is toxic too, +evidenced by both the work of content moderators who filter the +internet, and the shady tactics used by Big Tech to evade taxes to get +filthy rich off the backs of this global human-powered machine. As Ron +Deibert put it recently in his CBC Massey Lectures, "If we continue on +this path of unbridled consumption and planned obsolescence, we are +doomed."[^16] + +So we can either become extinct from the repercussions of our centuries +old destructive neoliberal colonial institutions, as the planet pushes +back with more pandemics, storms, and violence, or we can get together +and admit to our failures as colonisers. These failures tap into +something profound, deeply broken, about what settlers have historically +valued and continue to enact. We are living largely in the dark +fantasies of ghosts -- and these old, settler ideas haunt and break us. +We can imagine better. We can make other decisions. We can tune our +emotions to move from awareness to anxiety to action. We return public +lands to Indigenous peoples. We defund and dismantle white supremacy. We +transform ourselves, and our communication systems will follow. + +[^1]: [[https://www.convenience.org/Media/Daily/2020/May/1/6-Snack-Sales-Soar-During-Pandemic\_Marketing]{.underline}](https://www.convenience.org/Media/Daily/2020/May/1/6-Snack-Sales-Soar-During-Pandemic_Marketing) + [[https://news.italianfood.net/2020/04/02/pre-sliced-packaged-charcuterie-partly-offsets-pandemic-blow/]{.underline}](https://news.italianfood.net/2020/04/02/pre-sliced-packaged-charcuterie-partly-offsets-pandemic-blow/) + [[https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/16078-the-snack-trends-predicted-to-persist-post-pandemic]{.underline}](https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/16078-the-snack-trends-predicted-to-persist-post-pandemic) + +[^2]: [[https://nypost.com/2020/04/13/americans-are-handling-coronavirus-pandemic-by-binging-on-snacks/]{.underline}](https://nypost.com/2020/04/13/americans-are-handling-coronavirus-pandemic-by-binging-on-snacks/) + [[https://www.herworld.com/gallery/life/wellness/overeating-binge-eating-covid19-pandemic-work-home/]{.underline}](https://www.herworld.com/gallery/life/wellness/overeating-binge-eating-covid19-pandemic-work-home/) + +[^3]: [[https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/coronavirus-shutdowns-have-unintended-climate-benefits-n1161921]{.underline}](https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/coronavirus-shutdowns-have-unintended-climate-benefits-n1161921) + +[^4]: [[https://www.planetofstudents.com/blog/social-awareness/effects-of-lockdown-on-the-environment/]{.underline}](https://www.planetofstudents.com/blog/social-awareness/effects-of-lockdown-on-the-environment/) + +[^5]: [[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmanuelfelton/coronavirus-meme-nature-is-healing-we-are-the-virus]{.underline}](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmanuelfelton/coronavirus-meme-nature-is-healing-we-are-the-virus) + +[^6]: [[https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200305-why-your-internet-habits-are-not-as-clean-as-you-think]{.underline}](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200305-why-your-internet-habits-are-not-as-clean-as-you-think) + +[^7]: [[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/jan/12/carbon-emissions-google]{.underline}](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/jan/12/carbon-emissions-google) + +[^8]: [[https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200305-why-your-internet-habits-are-not-as-clean-as-you-think]{.underline}](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200305-why-your-internet-habits-are-not-as-clean-as-you-think) + +[^9]: [[https://theshiftproject.org/en/article/unsustainable-use-online-video/]{.underline}](https://theshiftproject.org/en/article/unsustainable-use-online-video/) + +[^10]: [[https://www.ecosia.org/]{.underline}](https://www.ecosia.org/) + +[^11]: [[https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/addon/carbonalyser/]{.underline}](https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/addon/carbonalyser/) + +[^12]: [[http://www.green-algorithms.org/]{.underline}](http://www.green-algorithms.org/) + +[^13]: [[https://landback.org/manifesto/]{.underline}](https://landback.org/manifesto/) + +[^14]: [[https://www.thebalancesmb.com/e-waste-recycling-facts-and-figures-2878189]{.underline}](https://www.thebalancesmb.com/e-waste-recycling-facts-and-figures-2878189) + +[^15]: [[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1350811/In-China-true-cost-Britains-clean-green-wind-power-experiment-Pollution-disastrous-scale.html]{.underline}](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1350811/In-China-true-cost-Britains-clean-green-wind-power-experiment-Pollution-disastrous-scale.html) + +[^16]: [[https://munkschool.exposure.co/a-qa-with-ron-deibert]{.underline}](https://munkschool.exposure.co/a-qa-with-ron-deibert) diff --git a/content/recommon-org-infrastructure-mega-corridors.md b/content/recommon-org-infrastructure-mega-corridors.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..18d822e --- /dev/null +++ b/content/recommon-org-infrastructure-mega-corridors.md @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ +Title: Infrastructure mega corridors: a way out (or in) to the crisis? +Author: Recommon +Category: Articles + +*"Infrastructure mega corridors: a way out (or in) to the crisis?"* + +*Translated from an original blogpost in Italian by Elena Gerebizza and +Filippo Taglieri from Re:Common introducing their new report: ["The +great illusion. Special economic zones and infrastructure +mega-corridors, the way to +go?"](https://web.archive.org/web/20200814132820/https://www.recommon.org/la-grande-illusione/)* + +In the last few months our lives have changed dramatically. Many of us +lost their jobs while many others continued working under extreme +conditions. Inequality and social injustices have become increasingly +visible features of the economic system and the society in which we +live. + +The pandemic might have impacted everyone's life, but it has not +affected everyone in the same way. Among the sectors that did not +suffer, but rather benefited from the crisis, are online platforms such +as Amazon and the likes. Those sectors have become the vehicles for the +transfer from "real life" to a virtual dimension for our working, +schooling, sporting and socialising. Fortunately, many have been +questioning what the implications of all this would be; including what +might happen to the data generated by our online lives; by whom and how +is this data being treated; and what are the implications? This is a +debate that we hope will remain open, since it concerns aspects that are +not contingent to the health crisis, but are instead key factors in the +reorganization of "the extractivist society". A society that enables a +few elites to extract more and more material and financial wealth from +the territories and local communities that inhabit them, effectively +expropriating them from the power to decide upon their own lives. + +While most ongoing conversations center around the health crisis and the +resulting recession, we want to bring attention to the systemic +reorganization that is taking place as we speak. We are talking about a +process that began before the pandemic, a new way of organizing large +infrastructure according to the logics of mega-corridors, to reduce time +and space, with the aim of continuously increasing profits on an +increasing scale in the face of a slowdown in the growth of global +trade. This process, which remains only partly visible, is highly +energy-intensive and rooted in the fossil fuel economy, involving the +construction of new high-speed railways for the transport of goods, port +terminals, data centres and power stations, as well as new logistics +centres covering hundreds of hectares. All this implies a radical and +irreversible transformation of territories for the benefit of large +private capital, where ports and production areas identified as "free +trade", or "Special Economic Zones" (SEZs), all become interconnected. + +What are the manifestations in Italy and Europe of this global capital +agenda? How will it change the social, economic and productive structure +of our country and the continent? What impact will it have on the +climate and the environment, two central areas where failures and +systemic contradictions are already very visible? The question is partly +rhetorical: it is difficult to imagine a "globalization 2.0" which will +accelerate production, transport and consumption of goods at an +unprecedented speed while at the same time profoundly reduce the +systemic impact on the environment and climate, an impact that goes far +beyond proposed calculations of direct and indirect emissions generated. + +Will the major infrastructure mega-corridors plan be challenged in the +post-pandemic economic crisis or will the current crisis be an excuse to +accelerate it? Will its overall impact be properly assessed? This +remains doubtful since harmful impacts of the global infrastructure +agenda are so far considered as the least of their problems by investors +and policy makers dazzled by forecasts and data about the production, +logistics and global trade that is starting again. + +How does this infrastructure masterplan meet the needs of the millions +of people who are already paying the highest costs of a profit-driven +model at all costs? How does it meet the needs of communities that will +be removed from their lands to make way for new mega infrastructure? How +will it make our societies more resilient to the great droughts, +typhoons, and increasingly heavy rains? How will it counteract the +increasing cementing of the most densely populated areas and how will it +enable everyone to have a roof over their heads? + +We believe that it is high time to open up to such far-reaching +questions. + +The original article and link to the report can be found +[[here]{.underline}](https://web.archive.org/web/20200814132820/https://www.recommon.org/la-grande-illusione/). diff --git a/content/text.md b/content/text.md index 30e2e6b..cdff604 100644 --- a/content/text.md +++ b/content/text.md @@ -1,3 +1,5 @@ Title: First thing Date: 2020-11-13 16:46 +Category: Projections + First website page! diff --git a/output/archives.html b/output/archives.html deleted file mode 100644 index a331173..0000000 --- a/output/archives.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,48 +0,0 @@ - - -
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