Yesterday I posed the question, “how can environmentalists push for government subsidies of green technologies when at their core, they do not believe technology can solve environmental problems?” And they have this position in spite of centuries of evidence to the contrary. Here is but one simple example of how technology can not only slow down an environmental problem, but outright eliminate it.
As we moved into the 1970s the price of copper was increasing fairly rapidly (even controlling for the worldwide inflation of the time). One reason is that people believe the supply is fixed (not really a useful assumption anyway) and another reason is that it was increasing in demand. Why? The world was getting richer, and everyone was having telephone lines installed in their homes – which were made of copper wires.
And then by some stroke of luck, someone figure out that if we take some sand, make it really hot, shape it into wirelike form, we can transmit voice and data signals over it, just like we did for copper – but on a scale unimaginable with copper. And with this fiber-optic cable development, the copper phone wire went the way of the dinosaur.
You might be saying, well, we still have limited amounts of sand, and just think of all of the resources we “use up” in order to create the fiber-optic lines and install them in homes and in the ground. You might have a point. However, does anyone remember Marconi? Someone in the 1980s and 1990s channeled him, and figured that heck, we don’t even need sand to carry these voice and data signals, we don’t even need air! These signals can travel all by themselves throught the atmosphere – and even through a vacuum!
Of course, I believe cell phone use exceeds land line use around the world – and people regularly use their phones or laptops to connect to the web to access unimaginable stores and flows of information. No more copper. No more sand. Virtually no resources (outside of brains) needed whatsoever for billions of people to simultaneous access information and to communicate with one another. Where exactly is the resource problem here? What is unsustainable about this?
Someone will probably have the cajones to say that the little devices we use to communicate are invariably bad and resource dependent, to which two things can be said. First, these objects have been using enormously fewer resources as time has progressed, and there is simply no reason to believe they will not continue to experience these efficiencies. Second, and more important, do we think pre-industrial man did not communicate and access data? Do we think even pre-civilized man did not do so? After all, the ecologocical community is increasingly known for advocating a return to sustainable local living, just like we had before evil capitalists conspired to unleash modern society on all of us.
Did people in those societies NOT communicate? How did they do it? They rode donkeys and horses many miles to bring written or spoken word to others. They constructed, by hand, enormous sailboats made from wood and other sustainable materials. They used animal skins and dyes to mark down the written words to do much of this. I recall learning about pre-industrial men regularly facing wood shortages and I do recall that animal waste is rather unpleasant – even when the waste does not include the carcasses themselves. What about any of that was more sustainable than using air to communicate, with a few inexpensive devices to do the communicating with?
God bless the great Julian Simon!!! 😉
Of course, I believe cell phone use exceeds land line use around the world – and people regularly use their phones or laptops to connect to the web to access unimaginable stores and flows of information. No more copper. No more sand.
It is true that consumers can connect to their provider using radio. However the provider must use copper and optic fiber from the point of connection (the cell tower or wifi hotspot), internally (wireless in a data center is a non-starter) and to talk to the rest of the internet: radio has distance and bandwidth limitations that copper and fiber do not.
I’m now not certain where you’re getting your info, but
good topic. I must spend some time studying more or figuring out more.
Thank you for excellent information I used to be searching for this info for my mission.!
Howdy! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my site to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very
good results. If you know of any please share.
Kudos! I saw similar article here: Eco product
587396 798774Hi there! I just wish to give an enormous thumbs up for the good info youve appropriate here on this post. I shall be coming once again to your weblog for extra soon. 56006
948966 19254This really is some fantastic data. I expect additional facts like this was distributed across the web today. 943477
I’m very pleased to find this website. I wanted to thank you for your time just for this wonderful read!! I definitely savored every little bit of it and I have you saved as a favorite to check out new information in your site.
You are so interesting! I do not think I’ve read something like that before. So good to discover another person with some original thoughts on this topic. Really.. thank you for starting this up. This web site is one thing that is needed on the internet, someone with a little originality.
171408 523721Glad to be 1 of many visitants on this awesome site : D. 413927
I can’t thank you enough for sharing such valuable travel information with us. Your article helped me gain a completely new perspective on exploring hidden gems while traveling. We had a discussion about a similar topic on TravelForums. Thank you for your effort and dedication!
An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a colleague who was conducting a little homework on this. And he in fact bought me lunch simply because I stumbled upon it for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this issue here on your website.
Everything is very open with a precise explanation of the issues. It was really informative. Your site is extremely helpful. Thank you for sharing.
Dinle: Meryem Ana Tanrıyı Doğurmadı Türkçe Rap Beat
Dinle: Stronsium 90 Türkçe Rap Beat
Thank you for explaining this travel topic so clearly and thoroughly. I found your advice on planning trips very helpful, and it encouraged me to do further research on destinations. We had a similar discussion on TravelForums. You’ve created such a valuable resource, thank you for your efforts!
This article was truly eye-opening; I learned so much! Your insights on travel-related topics have expanded my perspective greatly. Thank you for taking the time to share this with us. We had discussed a similar topic about travel tips on TravelForums. I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future! Amazing content, I both learned and enjoyed reading it.
761822 373479Thanks for the post, was an intriguing read. Curious as to how you came about that solution 133494
173875 152155really good post, i certainly enjoy this remarkable website, persist in it 610112
en kaliteli çakma somun çakma somun. Altınkaya.
pirinç somun pirinç somun. Altınkaya.
562906 280523extremely good publish, i surely enjoy this web web site, carry on it 169083
pirinç somun pirinç somun. Altınkaya.
en kaliteli çakma somun çakma somun. Altınkaya.
146310 429765I came across this excellent from you out of sheer luck and never think lucky enough to say also credit you for any job effectively done. 625943
589050 628611 warning Dont any of you men and women ever take me to CiCis pizza! There food looks offensive!|Urban_Elegance| 537788
52638 448336Oh my goodness! an wonderful write-up dude. Thanks a ton Nonetheless I will be experiencing dilemma with ur rss . Do not know why Not able to join it. Can there be every person acquiring identical rss issue? Anybody who knows kindly respond. Thnkx 708675
en iyi rap beat albüm Ruhların Etiketi Spotify. Lamentos
en iyi triphop albüm Ruhların Etiketi Spotify. Lamentos
231982 29285you can have an perfect weblog right here! would you prefer to make some invite posts on my weblog? 386694