slides

1. energysean cubitt
donau-krems
Fortune 500 Global, 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8-LDLyKaBM&feature=youtu.be

2. Manhattan skyline, morning of August 14th 2003

4. revolutionising the means of production
(mechanisation, computerisation)
tendency of the rate of profit to fall
externalisation of costs
crisis of overproduction
debt-financed over-consumption as solution to crisis
crisis of privatised debt
Political Economy

5. According to the US Department of Energy (2008), ‘Data
centers used 61 billion kWh of electricity in 2006, repre-
senting 1.5% of all U.S. electricity consumption and double
the amount consumed in 2000. Based on current trends,
energy consumed by data centers will continue to grow by
12% per year.’ The same agency reported in 2011 that ‘In-
formation technology and telecommunications facilities ac-
count for approximately 120 billion kilowatt hours of elec-
tricity annually—or 3% of all U.S. electricity use’, double
the figures of a scant five years earlier. The 2011 report
continues ‘Rapid growth in the U.S. data center industry is
projected to require two new large power plants per year
just to keep pace’ (US Dept of Energy 2011). In 2006, Boc-
caletti and colleagues at consultants McKinsey estimated,
IT manufacture and use was responsible for 2% of global
carbon emissions – like the Climate Group (2008) noting
that this was the same amount as the much-criticised airline
industry – and was heading for 3% by 2020, when it would
be responsible for the same amount of carbon as the United
Kingdom produced in 2008. The authors argued that ‘the
fastest-increasing contributor to emissions will be growth in
the number and size of data centers, whose carbon footprint
will rise more than fivefold between 2002 and 2020’ (Boc-
caletti et al 2008: 2).

9. BP Deepwater Horizon clean-up costs:
total discharge 4.9 million barrels
$20 billion for individual claimants
$4.5 billion in fines
$594 million early settlement fund.
Total: approx $26 billion
Royal Dutch Shell Ogoniland clean-up fund
total discharge 9 - 13 million barrels
Total: $15.5 million

12. • ecological damage;
• the water system;
• radiation;
• cultural heritage
• social impacts.
(Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology
and the Arts References Committee 1999)

13. In order to address its own growing freshwater crises, the Chinese government
has initiated massive infrastructure projects in Tibet. One such project is the
Ymdrok Tso hydroelectric power station located on Yamdrok Lake, sacred to
Tibetans. There are serious concerns the project will drain the lake completely
as freshwater springs have dried in recent years.
The loss of freshwater around Yamdrok Lake has forced local Tibetans to drink
water from the lake resulting in health problems such as diarrhea, loss of hair
and skin disease. According to the Tibet Government-in-Exile, Tibetans living
in the area have lost as much as 16 per cent of their agricultural land due to the
project.
China plans to expand dam-production in Tibet with forecasts to build nearly
100 new dams across the Tibetan plateau. It also plans to build several water
diversion projects to move these waters away from South and South-East Asia
into China thereby restricting water supply and increasing floods, environmen-
tal damage and contamination.
In addition to drawing water from tributaries of the Yangtze, China has also
discussed rerouting water from the Brahmaputra northwards to the Yellow
River.
This proposal has been described by some Indian experts as a declaration of
‘water war’ on India and Bangladesh.
http://www.tibet.ca/en/campaigns/thirdpole

14. DOWN WITH THE WEB. WE DEMAND DIRECT, UNMEDIATED, COMMUNICATIONS FOR ALL USERS!
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 14:29:23 +0100
From: Dmytri Kleiner <dk@telekommunisten.net>
To: <nettime-l@kein.org>
Subject: <nettime> THE SERVER IS THE MASTER: NUMBERS STATION
@transmediale

18. Salar De Uyuni, Bolivia)

19. Lithium may be the new darling of the Western green
lobby but its extraction comes at a high environmental
cost.The sudden insatiable demand is spurring a race
to find new sources of the third element. Mining com-
panies are now scouring the globe’s remotest corners,
including the wilds of northern Tibet, where the Chi-
nese have uncovered new reserves, as well as these re-
mote salt plains of South America. Chile, currently the
world’s largest supplier of the element, has estimated
reserves of three million tons.
This is dwarfed, however, by the potential lithium in
Bolivia.The US Geological Survey claims at least 5.4
million tons of lithium could be extracted in Salar De
Uyuni, while another report puts it as high as nine mil-
lion tons. If the electric car is ever to become a mass-
market product, the lithium beneath my feet is going to
have to be mined. But the Western companies desper-
ate to get at these reserves face significant hurdles.
To get at the lithium below the white crust will cause
irreparable damage to this landscape. In Salar De Uyu-
ni, in particular, the lithium is highly diluted across the
plains, so very extensive extraction operations would
have to be deployed across huge swathes of the region.
The process would also put incredible pressure on
water supplies. . . . local South American populations
find themselves having to buy water after big mining
companies suck the land dry.
Dan MacDougal, In search of Lithium:The battle for the 3rd element, Mail
Online, Saturday, Oct 17 2009
http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/68762-the-deadly-tin-inside-your-smartphone

21. Vincent van Gogh The Potato-eaters 1885

22. Kroyer Aftenselskab i Ny Carlberg Glyptotek 1888

23. Gustave Doré and Blanchard Jerrold, London – A Pilgrimage 1872

24. Edinburgh, waterfont gasometer before demolition
Gas street lighting and domestic lighting expansion
1820-1840

25. Light pollution, from http://www.savethenight.eu/

26. three mile island

27. Film stills from Vladimir Shevchenko, Chronicle of Difficult Weeks,
1986, 54 mins.
https://vimeo.com/28960413
CHERNOBYL

28. FirstEnergy, Davis-Besse nuclear power plant, near Toledo, Ohio
davis besse