Take Back the planet: Part 2

 Take Back the plant: Part 2

from one telephone in the hallway to a connected planet: the environmental cost of our digital lives

The technology revolution changed how we live. But have we considered what it takes to keep us connected?

Remember when most households had one telephone?

It sat on a table or hung on a wall. It had a cord, perhaps a long one if you wanted a little privacy. Everyone in the family shared it. If someone was talking, you waited.

There were no smartphones, no social media, no streaming services, no video calls, no tablets and no cloud storage.

We communicated, but we didn't carry the entire world around in our pockets.

Then everything changed.

The numbers tell the story

Let's look at how the world moved from traditional telephone lines to the digital age.

Landlines

• 1990: Approximately 9.8 fixed telephone subscriptions per 100 people.
• 2006: Landlines reached their global high, with approximately 1.22 billion lines.
• 2024: Traditional public telephone network lines had fallen to approximately 407 million.

Mobile phones

• 2000: Mobile phones were still relatively uncommon worldwide.
• 2007: Approximately 50 mobile subscriptions per 100 people.
• 2013: Mobile phones had become commonplace, with subscriptions approaching the size of the world's population.
• 2025: Approximately 9.2 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide.

The internet

• 2013: Approximately 2.56 billion internet users.
• 2025: Approximately 6 billion people using the internet.

Connected devices

• 2013: Estimates put connected devices at approximately 10 billion.
• 2025: An estimated 21.1 billion connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices alone.

And that last number does not even include ordinary smartphones, computers, laptops, tablets or landline telephones.

Sources: International Telecommunication Union, TeleGeography, Statista and IoT Analytics.

What happened to all those old telephones?

Technology didn't simply replace one thing with another. It created an entirely new manufacturing industry.

Think about what we now carry:

• Smartphones
• Tablets
• Laptops
• Smartwatches
• Wireless headphones
• Cameras
• Gaming consoles
• Smart televisions
• Home security systems
• Internet routers

Then consider what we don't necessarily see.

Factories, telecommunications equipment, satellites, network infrastructure, data centres, servers, sensors, cables and the enormous electrical systems needed to keep everything running.

Our digital lives have a physical footprint.

Every device comes from somewhere

Before a smartphone reaches a store, its components have already travelled through a complicated global supply chain.

Metals must be mined. Minerals must be processed. Components must be manufactured. Devices must be assembled, packaged and shipped.

All of this requires energy, water, land and resources.

Copper, lithium, cobalt, nickel, gold and rare earth elements are among the materials used in modern electronics.

Mining can affect forests, waterways, ecosystems and the communities living near extraction sites.

Manufacturing requires electricity and water. Transportation adds emissions. And when we replace our devices, the old ones have to go somewhere.

Some are recycled. Others are stored in drawers, sent overseas or discarded.

Electronic waste is now one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the world.

And now we have artificial intelligence

Just as we were getting used to smartphones and cloud computing, artificial intelligence arrived.

AI requires computing power, servers, data centres, cooling systems and electricity.

The digital world may appear invisible, but it is not weightless.

Every search, upload, video, online transaction and AI request depends on physical infrastructure.

That doesn't mean technology is inherently bad. It has helped us communicate, learn, access information, improve healthcare and connect people across enormous distances.

The question is whether we can continue expanding our digital world without considering its environmental consequences.

Can we make technology sustainable?

Perhaps we need to start asking different questions.

Do we really need a new phone every year?

Why are so many electronic products difficult or expensive to repair?

Why do perfectly functional devices become obsolete?

Are manufacturers taking sufficient responsibility for collecting, repairing and recycling their products?

Can we design electronics to last longer, use fewer raw materials and consume less energy?

Can governments establish stronger rules around manufacturing, repairability, recycling and electronic waste?

These are not just consumer questions. They are environmental questions.

A message to the next generation

To the young people taking governments to court over climate change, and to everyone working to protect the environment:

Remember that the climate crisis is connected to much more than fossil fuels.

It is connected to how we manufacture, consume, transport, build and dispose of things.

You are inheriting a world that has become extraordinarily dependent on technology.

You deserve technology that serves humanity without treating the planet as an unlimited warehouse of resources.

You deserve a future where innovation means finding better ways to live, not simply finding more things to manufacture and sell.

Back in 2013, I was already asking questions about the scale of electronics production and what it meant for the environment.

Today, those questions are even more important.

We cannot keep upgrading our devices while downgrading the natural world that makes our lives possible.

Perhaps progress shouldn't be measured by how many devices we own, but by how responsibly we use the resources we have.

The next generation has a right to ask those questions.

And the rest of us have a responsibility to listen.

To be continued...

Part 2 of 10 — The Environmental Series | Changerzz

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