ARTS & FARCES internet

Steelcase—the furniture maker—asked 100 thinkers to describe a wish for the next 100 years. Christopher Mims, writing for the Technology Review, reports that MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito absolutely nailed it in 150 words.

“One hundred years from now, the role of science and technology will be about becoming part of nature rather than trying to control it.

“So much of science and technology has been about pursuing efficiency, scale and ‘exponential growth’ at the expense of our environment and our resources. We have rewarded those who invent technologies that control our triumph over nature in some way. This is clearly not sustainable.

“We must understand that we live in a complex system where everything is interrelated and interdependent and that everything we design impacts a larger system.

“My dream is that 100 years from now, we will be learning from nature, integrating with nature and using science and technology to bring nature into our lives to make human beings and our artifacts not only zero impact but a positive impact to the natural system that we live in.”

Now if the brain trust at the MIT Press would get off its dead ass and publish Howard Rheingold’s Net Smart: How to Thrive Online as a non-DRMed EPUB ebook (as well as the rest of the Rheingold back catalog it has seemed to corral) my faith in MIT would be at least partially restored.

Since the last ice age some 12,000 years ago we’ve been living in what’s referred to the Holocene and may be entering a new epoch called the Anthropocene. In this Anthropocene era, humanity is no longer shaped by the external world; instead the external world is shaped by humanity. Our shaping of the external world naturally affects the planet’s geological record.

Globaia focuses on creating maps and other visualizations of the impact we’re having on the Earth. Earlier this month, Globia released its most recent work, an animation illustrating our collective impact on the planet by clearly showing our transportation routes and power grids.

Globia’s video animation of human impact on the Earth for Welcome to the Anthropocene commissioned for the Planet Under Pressure conference.

We think of the Earth as a water-filled planet. But that’s not so. The US Geological Survey (USGS) has created a stunning and compelling visualization of how much water there is on the planet. Not just fresh water, but all water: Salt water from the oceans, ice caps, ground water, atmospheric water (water vapor), and even water contained in plants and animals (including humans).

Earth’s total water, visualized (from USGS).

It’s a disturbing image because the dot of water stretches only about 332,500,000 cubic miles (with a diameter of only about 860 miles)—“from about Salt Lake City, Utah to Topeka, Kansas.”

In an effort to increase awareness in Germany about the disparity between people on organ transplant waiting lists and organ donors, Ogilvy & Mather Berlin created The Waiting Time Experiment. The short video shows dialysis patient Michael Stapf—who’s been waiting for a kidney for seven years—dialyzing in a concourse at the Frankfurt airport.

It’s quite disturbing to see the healthcare worker, probably a doctor because this is Germany after all, place Stapf’s dialysis needles without gloves.

Last February, the Obama administration’s Interior Department proposed a rule that would require companies that use hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) on public land for oil and gas to disclose the chemicals they use. Most fracking takes place on private land; about 20 percent takes place on public lands. Of course the gas and oil lobbyists responded with the all-too-familiar claims of burdensome paperwork and mandated revelation of trade secrets, according to John M. Broder writing for the New York Times.

The Obama administration response was similarly all-too-familiar. Under the draft rule released by the Interior Department, fracking companies would still have to disclose the chemicals they use, but only after the drilling is completed. Because disclosure after the damage is done magically reduces paperwork and cloaks trade secrets.

Hydraulic fracturing—“fracking”—is the process by which vast quantities of water, sand, and proprietary chemicals are pumped into a well under high pressure, causing the shale to fracture and release natural gas. The process was patented by Halliburton in the 1940s, and Halliburton remains one of the largest manufacturers of the chemicals used in fracking. In 2005, the George W. Bush administration’s energy bill exempted natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water Act and protected the gas and oil companies from disclosing the chemicals they used. Not for nothing, Bush’s vice president was Dick Cheney, who was Halliburton’s chief executive before he was vice president.

While the all-too-ineffective US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that fracking doesn’t threaten drinking water, the study upon which that determination was based is inadequate. In 2005, Earthworks published a report criticizing the EPA’s ineffectiveness. Residents in Alabama, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming have reported water problems after fracking near their homes.

The Earthworks report cites the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission statistics finding 90 percent of oil and gas wells in the US use fracking (and wells can be fracked multiple times). Chemicals thought to be used in the fracking process include volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylene. These chemicals are added to up to eight million gallons of water in a single fracking process. Only 30-50 percent of the water used is recovered as highly toxic wastewater. Evaporators are then used to release the VOCs into the air and the remaining wastewater is taken to treatment facilities.

Josh Fox’s Gasland (2010; winner of the Sundance special documentary jury prize) brilliantly documents the problems associated with fracking. In one memorable scene, residents of a small Pennsylvania town are seen igniting their drinking water.

Meanwhile, other Obama administration agencies and officials have begun to escalate their ineffective rhetoric (talk’s cheap) with regard to the environment. Days earlier, for example, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the Environmental Defense Fund, “the area of climate change has a dramatic impact on national security.” Right hand, meet left hand.

Think we can afford all that water—and all those chemicals going into our water—for fracking? Take a gander at this US Geological Survey image showing the earth’s water volume.