These are some of the actions we can take to contribute our little bit
Extractivism
What can we do?
- Buy fewer devices. Ask ourselves: which ones are indispensable to our life and work? Which are the most environmentally “friendly”?
- Reuse equipment. Is there some project in my community that reuses old equipment? Does anyone in my family or group of friends need a technological device I’m getting rid of?
- Recycle the materials devices are made of. We should demand that this is considered from the manufacturing phase. There are social projects that recycle devices, but not always for continuing use.
- Repair. It’s better to replace the parts instead of buying a whole new device.
- We can also Reflect, Reject advertising that “invites” us to constantly buy “the latest” technology, and Reclaim legislation and oversight to address these problems.
Labor
It is vital that we become more aware of the “invisible” reality of production and consumption of digital technology. From each of our own spaces, we can:
- Promote organization among affected communities in dispossessed territories and technology industry workers.
- Share experiences of resistance and join in formulating common goals.
- Build and participate in spaces for knowledge with a critical perspective on technologies, including all their eco-social dimensions and impacts.
- Demand policies on the production and development of digital technology that prioritize the lives of people and natural environments.
Infrastructure
Infrastructures are political. They reflect the social imaginaries and matrixes from which they arise. What can we do?
- Become more aware of the “invisible” reality of digital technology production and consumption.
- Participate, encourage and strengthen the construction and sharing of local and community technologies that suit the needs of the communities themselves.
- Support regulation of the design, production, use and disposal of electronics to achieve technological sovereignty, regional autonomy and full respect for people’s lives and the environment.
Uses
Resisting to exist in digital territory means prioritizing other values, intentions, dreams, hopes and technologies. What can we do?
- Inhabit technologies by perceiving our inner time and the times of natural environments.
- Act to alter lifestyles, reduce consumption, promote the right to repair and eradicate planned obsolescence.
- Use technologies that are (a little) healthier and closer by. Remember that Free Software is a great enabler for this.
Waste
To mitigate the adverse effects of e-waste, we need to change the dominant paradigm of development.
- Assume shared responsibility for our technological consumption and try to reduce it. For example, we can begin by not consuming what we don’t need. Can we do this conversation, research, dance or meeting (or some parts of them) with no digital technology involved?
- Promote transparency in the lifecycle of technologies, to know where they’re produced, consumed, and discarded.
- Promote participative, open technological development.
- Promote a culture of repair and demand that products be made more durable and repairable, more modular (like Fairphone), so that users can easily replace defective components.
- Demand that companies and governments adopt principles of sustainability, environmental justice and social equality in technological development.
