gerrymcgovern

gerrymcgovern, 9 days ago to random

"The British Crown and other colonial states relied on racist concepts like the Doctrine of Discovery and Terra Nullius, known as the unowned lands doctrine, to seize Indigenous lands and ignore or subvert the laws and institutions through which Indigenous Peoples had successfully managed these territories. The consequence has been cultural loss, alienation, impoverishment, conflict and environmental degradation."

https://theconversation.com/historic-haida-nation-agreement-shows-the-world-how-to-uphold-indigenous-rights-229447

gerrymcgovern, 9 days ago to random

"Apache Stronghold, representing the San Carlos Apache tribe, appeals to the U.S. appeals court, seeking to reverse a decision granting land to Rio Tinto and BHP for a copper mine in Arizona.
The mine’s proposed location holds immense cultural and spiritual importance for Indigenous communities, hosting sacred ceremonies for generations."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/native-american-group-fights-land-grant-for-arizona-copper-mine/ar-BB1lID0e?ocid=hpmsn

gerrymcgovern, 10 days ago to random

Everything digital is harder to repair

"Few mechanics are properly equipped to deal with all-electric vehicle issues. Unless properly trained, they are limited to what service manuals say. In many cases, shops refuse to work on EVs that have tricky problems because they don't want to risk making things worse for everyone involved. Modern cars are more approachable, but, as a collector warns, repairing some of them can turn into a hopeless endeavor."

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/not-just-evs-repairing-conventional-cars-is-already-a-major-headache-233738.html

gerrymcgovern, 11 days ago to random

Data centers to run out of power in two years, says DigitalBridge CEO

'We're kind of running out of power in the next 18 to 24 months,' warned Marc Ganzi of DigitalBridge. How data center operators might address this power shortage remains unclear.

https://www.lightreading.com/ai-machine-learning/data-centers-to-run-out-of-power-in-two-years-says-digitalbridge-ceo

The voracious greed for growth at any and all costs by Big Tech is pushing our environment even faster towards collapse. Politicians are cheer-leading all this. It's so shameful. The very worst of ancestors.

gerrymcgovern, 11 days ago to random

"By now it’s been made fairly clear that the bedazzling wonderment that is “AI” doesn’t come cheap. Story after story have highlighted how the technology consumes massive amounts of electricity and water, and we’re not really adapting to keep pace. This is also occurring alongside a destabilizing climate crisis that’s already putting a capacity and financial strain on aging electrical infrastructure."

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/05/10/ceo-ai-power-drain-could-cause-data-centers-to-run-out-of-power-within-two-years/

gerrymcgovern, 11 days ago to random

"The facilities also require huge amounts of land, water and energy — up to 50 times more per square foot than the average office building — while providing few direct, permanent jobs. Critics argue the bills fall short of ensuring data centers don’t overuse Michigan’s water and compromise its clean energy goals."

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/would-tax-break-mi-data-centers-bring-economic-boon-or-climate-doom

gerrymcgovern, 12 days ago to random

Data centers in Northern Virginia are using “absurd amounts of water”

“The region is the world’s largest data center hub, with over 300 facilities processing almost 70 percent of global digital information, each using as much as 5 million gallons of water per day. And because cooling methods often rely on evaporation, the water does not go back into wastewater systems. “Data centers rank among the top 10 water-consuming industries in the United States”

https://www.planetizen.com/news/2024/05/128903-virginia-data-centers-draining-states-water-supply

gerrymcgovern, 12 days ago to random

Tech innovation in an era of environmental collapse: AI, bitcoin, vapes, earbuds

"Vapes electronic waste yet these manufactured electronics with rechargeable batteries are produced and shipped around the world. They are utilized and designed to be thrown out after use. Disposable vapes are single-use products powered by the same rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars and iPhones."

https://patch.com/new-york/glencove/vape-waste-detrimental-environment

gerrymcgovern, 12 days ago to random

"New figures reveal there have been over 1,200 battery fires in bin lorries and at waste sites in the UK over the past 12 months. The failure to responsibly dispose of waste electrical products is contributing to a huge increase in the number of battery fires in bin lorries and at waste management sites."

https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4206656/vapes-waste-blamed-surge-battery-fires-waste-sites

gerrymcgovern, 12 days ago to random

The AI Revolution Is Crushing Thousands of Languages

More than half of all websites are in English, yet more than 80 percent of people in the world don’t speak the language.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/04/generative-ai-low-resource-languages/678042/

gerrymcgovern, 12 days ago to random

It takes lots of coal and charcoal to make silicon

For every 50,000 tons of silicon, there’s 500,000 tons of CO2 produced. If used in a solar panel, the silicon should produce four times as much energy as it took to make it.

“It’s Like Working In A Volcano”: How Silicon Is Made | Extreme Jobs, ABC Australia,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eVsQSn_EWc

Silicon is not green and certainly not clean. Nor is it renewable. We must use it wisely.

gerrymcgovern, 13 days ago to random

"It’s 2024 and I’m suspicious of “solutions”. Solutions to what? Excess greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that have already seen us breach the 1.5 degree limit set by the Paris Agreement? Ocean acidification that’s bleaching corals en masse? The rampant deforestation and habitat destruction that’s seen half of the world’s wilderness turned into farmland? How about the economic system with its limited prescription of value that converts what is priceless into profit?"

https://www.planetcritical.com/p/dont-talk-to-me-about-solutions

gerrymcgovern, 13 days ago to random

Canadian Mining Company to Explore in the Ecuadorian Amazon

The mining project is not supported by Indigenous peoples because it will have negative consequences on the Amazon ecosystems.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Canadian-Mining-Company-to-Explore-in-the-Ecuadorian-Amazon-20240508-0009.html

How did we destroy our environment?
Through mining.

How are we going to save our environment?
Through mining!

Ok, Growth Death Culter.

gerrymcgovern, 13 days ago to random

Who is driving the Growth Death Cult train? It's not Big Oil. Big Oil is just the fuel man, feeding the engine. The one who made the engine, the one who's driving growth, the one who is benefiting most from environmental collapse, that's Big Tech.

We must see clearly. The core problem is overconsumption. The killer app of AI is advertising. Data centers are advertising centers. Big Tech is the driver of the overconsumption Growth Death Cult train.

gerrymcgovern, 13 days ago to random

"Despite the best efforts of automakers and companies like Apple, states continue to push forward with popular “right to repair” reforms that make it easier and more affordable for consumers to repair tech they own. While they vary in potency, New York, Oregon, California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Maine, and Minnesota have all now passed some flavor of right to repair reforms."

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/05/08/colorado-passes-its-third-right-to-repair-bill/

gerrymcgovern, 14 days ago to random

"Mining, big agribusiness, and the fossil fuel sectors have unleashed an astronomical spate of attacks on human rights defenders (HRDs) throughout 2023. Crucially, perpetrators linked to companies and projects in these sectors account for the majority of over 600 attacks across the course of the year.

This is according to a new damning report by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC)."

https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-news/2024/05/07/human-rights-defenders-attacks-2023/

gerrymcgovern, 14 days ago to random

“Of all the metals, the aggregate potential for damage to human and environmental health is the greatest for copper,” a report by The International Institute for Sustainable Development stated. An OECD investigation had similar findings. Copper mining has a long history of “mass destruction” of the environment.

gerrymcgovern, 14 days ago to random

Why do data centers and AI need tax breaks?

"Today, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp vetoed HB 1192, which would have put a two-year pause on a state tax break for data centers. The bill would have also created a study committee to allow the state to better plan for the influx of data centers and large amounts of power they require. Testimony presented during floor debate showed that the tax break for data centers was only returning 24 cents for every dollar lost."

https://www.sierraclub.org/georgia/blog/2024/05/press-release-response-gov-kemp-s-veto-hb-1192-pause-tax-breaks-data-centers

gerrymcgovern, 14 days ago to random

"As logging and mining threaten the Amazon, Peru's lawmakers are rolling back anti-deforestation laws in defiance of global climate accords."
https://www.context.news/nature/what-does-perus-forest-law-mean-for-the-environment

The frenzy of AI and the Greed Transition is being felt most in the last refuges of Nature, the last refuges of biodiversity. The Global North is now on a righteous march of extinction and genocide, as it self-congratulates itself on its wonderful innovation and progress.

gerrymcgovern, 14 days ago to random

Mining the Grand Canyon

Arizona lawmakers argue that the monument's creation under the Antiquities Act affects revenue and local economies, pushing for uranium mining.

Hopi, Havasupai, and Navajo Nation have intervened in the lawsuit, emphasizing their sovereign interests and ancestral connection to the land.

Conservation groups back the tribes, highlighting the monument's significance for wildlife migration, cultural heritage, and food and medicine resources.

https://www.ehn.org/arizona-tribes-oppose-uranium-mining-in-grand-canyon-area-2668175089.html

gerrymcgovern, 14 days ago to random

"The Yuturi Warmi, an Ecuadorian patrol group, has vowed to protect their community's land in the Amazon Rainforest from the pollution of extractive industries – and their efforts appear to be working. Along the Jatunyacu River, which later joins the Amazon River in the Napo Province, Elsa Cerda, a 43-year-old indigenous Kichwa woman, brews guayusa leaves – a native plant from the rainforest – in a pot."

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240503-the-indigenous-women-fighting-mining-in-ecuadors-amazon

paninid, 15 days ago to random

The #InformationWars precede the #WaterWars.
https://mastodon.green/@gerrymcgovern/112399989793545485