Page 60 - Carbon Capitalism and Communication Confronting Climate Crisis

44 R. MAXWELL AND T. MILLER

environmental decline: rising energy consumption, associated carbon
emissions, toxic working conditions and wasteful consumption habits.
Consider that there are upwards of 14 billion networked devices across
the globe, along with a huge private and governmental ICT complex,
telecommunications structures and so-called cloud services running mil-
lions of servers inside large refrigerated warehouses. This vast intercon-
nected system of digital devices runs on energy grids that produce carbon
emissions that rival most major industries—at the same time, these tech-
nologies have become vital to all major industries. The manufacture of
digital technology relies on raw materials, some highly toxic to biological
organisms that are too often mined in unsafe, slave-like working condi-
tions. The factories where high-tech goods are assembled and receive their
final polish have been likened to a plantation system, where workers are
driven to produce at inhumane speeds to match the insatiable demand for
ever new or upgraded devices (Qiu 2016a, b). The manufacture, use and
disposal of high-tech goods have real bio-physical effects on workers and
ecosystems.
Environmentalists who grapple with this downside of digital technolo-
gies face a paradox about how to ensure ecologically sound practices in
their organizations. For while the expansion of their digital activities is
perceived as inherently good, such virtue does not magically eliminate the
bad environmental impact of the ICTs they use. This is similar to the
dilemma faced by cultural organizations aspiring to do their part for sus-
tainability (Maxwell 2015a). Of course, the cultural sector is more deeply
embedded in capitalistic economic development, with global trade in
cultural products increasing from US$559.5 billion in 2010 to US$624
billion in 2011, for example (United Nations 2014). The European
Commission defines cultural and creative industries as an economic growth
sector, with emphases on education, artists’ mobility, regulatory reform
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and market access and investment. For its part, UNESCO promotes
culture as a fourth pillar of sustainable development, an idea that elevates
creative industries to equal partnership with stakeholders working for
economic growth, social inclusion and environmental balance. The aim is
to win a place for “culture-led development” in sustainability debates, not
environmental sustainability within the cultural sector (UNESCO 2012).
Likewise, environmentalist organizations seek to lead discussions of
development to a greener path, but not necessarily by looking at their own