[Translation : EPALE France]

The challenges of the digital transition affect us all without us really realising, with mass deployment of digital technology, access to information, the media and social networks, environmental impact, social issues and political manipulation; all the ingredients for a highly influential tool. In education and training, digital technology is often used as a tool, and sometimes an end in itself. From MOOCs to education in digital uses, understanding the role, risks, contributions and desirable trajectories of digital technology is a way for education and training stakeholders to help guide digital pathways in the right direction.

A series of three articles to help you better understand the digital and ecological transitions:

Transitions: digital technology cannot be dematerialised and is increasingly affecting the climate (1/3)

Transitions: the social impact of digital technology is not guided by the general interest (2/3)

Transitions: reconciling digital technology and environmental and societal transitions, starting today (3/3)

Transitions: digital technology cannot be dematerialised and is increasingly affecting the climate (1/3)

A dematerialised industry... really?

From the cloud to the mine: this is the story of Juan, a 28-year-old communications teacher. He turns on his favourite streaming application on his smartphone to watch the latest episode of his favourite Korean series. His thumb barely grazes the screen before the device recognises his intention. Data flows are organised at high speed within the device and in different clouds[i]. These data exchanges are managed by and pass through a number of systems: Juan's smartphone and wifi router, various optical fibres spanning thousands of kilometres, the operator's routers, servers, and so on. In order for the light from a single pixel in his series to reach his retina, Juan will therefore have unknowingly mobilised electricity, electronic terminals, optical fibres placed in underground networks and perhaps in the Atlantic Ocean, and certainly even more than that.

But all Juan has on his sofa is a quiet, neat smartphone and a wifi box hidden in a cupboard. He sees no smoke, no terminals of any kind, no mobile network antennas, no power stations, no fibre optic maintenance boats. Nor can he see the technicians working in the sewers full of cables, the huge air-conditioned data centres located 30 km from his home, or the many professional vehicles mobilised to maintain and update the network. And so he may have the legitimate impression that digital technology, although an industry, is truly “dematerialised” as we often hear. He would see this as being quite natural.

Figure 1: Global map of the fibre optic network - Source: Visual Capitalist

But when we look further up the digital value chain, we realise that “digital technology is not an intangible industry. The manufacture and use of digital equipment and infrastructure requires an impressive amount of non-renewable natural resources, some of which are extremely rare.” [ii]

The starting point: metals, water and oil

But that's not all! The manufacture of all these material elements results from the mobilisation of employees, many and varied materials, water and energy. And for an employee to work, they need to travel, have access to facilities, equipment and electricity, among other things. The extraction of raw materials (metals, many of which are rare earth and at the base of the pyramid of the digital revolution[iii], oil for plastics, silica) requires large-scale facilities, site machinery and diesel-powered lorries, to which must be added a refining and assembly process, itself often requiring transport between factories. Energy (coal, diesel, electricity in most cases) is actually the source of an incredible number of these processes involving people and materials.

If we look further up the digital production chain, three elements of our earth's crust are used: metals, water and oil, which enables all these materials to be extracted, processed and transported.

Take these examples:

• It takes 54 times the weight of a car to manufacture a car, 500 times the weight of a smartphone to manufacture a smartphone, and 16,000 times for a 2-gram microchip. [iv]
• Every year, for the purposes of their professional digital tools, a French person working in an office uses 370 kg of excavated soil, 2 kg of CO₂ and 1,068 litres of water. [v]

A lot of water is used. Dozens of different metals are present in our electronics, some of which are rare and some of which are in decline. We rely heavily on fossil fuels, particularly oil. It is used for mining equipment, lorries, boats, power stations and the production of plastics and chemicals.

The impact on the climate, resources and ecosystems is increasing and has immense destructive potential

Digital technology contributes to climate change. The order of magnitude of its contribution is close to that of aviation (2.5% of France's carbon footprint[vi], but figures are sometimes as high as 4%, particularly at global level). On the scale of a French citizen, the average annual impact of digital use on climate change is comparable to 2,259 km travelled by car per individual.[vii]

When we consider the trajectories of the various sectors in the fight against climate change, each of them has a target for a sharp reduction. On the contrary, the digital sector (which is not identified as a sector in these objectives) is expanding rapidly: greenhouse gases could increase by 60% between now and 2040 if nothing is done to control this expansion.[viii]

But climate change is not the only environmental impact. The use of many resources such as energy, materials and water leads to resource depletion and pollution. [ix]

• Today, the French use 11% of their electricity consumption for digital purposes.[x] Electricity consumption for infrastructure accounts for 52% of overall energy expenditure and causes ionising radiation and the depletion of fossil fuels.[xi]
• It is recognised that the extraction of these resources and their transformation into electronic components represents by far the greatest source of environmental impact, followed by the pollution associated with end-of-life.” [xii]. In fact, the manufacture of devices (particularly screens and televisions) has the greatest impact, displacing 932 kg of materials per inhabitant per year, along with the associated impacts on ecosystems and human health. In 2020, the production of waste in France was equal to 299 kg per inhabitant over the entire life cycle of equipment (from manufacture to end of life).[xiii]

Regulations and standards have been developed (in Europe on hazardous substances, for example), certifications have been created and many players are launching initiatives to moderate the harmful impacts of digital technology. One example is the Green IT Club, which is developing strategies to change companies' purchasing policies and extend the life of equipment, in particular by ensuring that it can be reused[xiv]. Unfortunately, this is still insufficient, given the massive increase in the production of data and devices, and in the use of energy and materials. Juan didn't realise all of this until now.

Coming up :

Transitions: the social impact of digital technology is not guided by the general interest (2/3)

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Illustration : Jorge Salvador et Ryutaro Uozomi / Unsplash