Digital Ecogolical Footprint

This past week, our Internet for Educators class was virtually visited by Reynold Redekopp from the University of Manitoba.  "Rennie" (as referred to by Mike Nantais) provided some in-depth information in regards to the extraction of raw materials used to manufacture our everyday handheld devices.  Rennie introduced the idea of not thinking solely about our digital footprint, but our digital "ecological" footprint.  In all honesty, I have taken for granted the availability of smart phones and the access to the digital world I surround myself with.  Prior to hearing from Rennie, not once did I think about where my smartphone came from, what resources were mined to produce my smartphone, and how the production of smartphones negatively impacts human beings.

The most surprising piece of information presented was the fact that in Manitoba, we used to mine Tantalum, but with all businesses, the extraction of Tantalum needed to be profitable.  As Rennie mentioned, mines were eventually shutdown due to the lack of profitability.  Corporations look for the cheapest, most affordable raw materials and unfortunately, Manitoba wasn't cheap enough.  This is where places like the Congo, Brazil and Rwanda come into play because of their inventory of cheap Tantalum.  As mentioned by Newsweek, "Nearly all computers, cellphones and other high-tech gadgets use tantalum, a pearly, blue-gray mineral found in Brazil and Australia but also in Rwanda and the DRC."  Cheaper or no labour costs, a lack of safety precautions and human slavery have made the cost of extraction in war-torn countries like DRC very little.  The "human cost" of Tantalum however, is extremely high.

Map retrieved from https://www.americangeosciences.org/geoscience-currents/tantalum.

As suggested by Rennie, instead of teaching students solely about how to appropriately use social media and the internet, have them dive deeper and talk about the human impacts of our devices in the world.  For myself, it's a new train of thought, and one I would like to bring fourth in my future classes.