Fear of resource depletion is or will become the driving force behind a repair economy — to the extent that it does not already exist in most people’s lives. The use of raw materials just reshuffles them around the globe. In a few centuries, coltan mining will mean digging for ancient mobile phones in the rubble of former cities. Every openness emerges from physicality, and an average Google server plant consumes as much electricity as a city of 500,000. Who knows about ‘open mining’?
MASS-DEFORESTATION IN THE AMAZON ➝ INTO THE OPEN / JOHN THACKARA
PHOTO: LEONARDO F FREITAS ➝ WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/LEOFFREITAS/1469376131
OLD STYLE STRIP MINING
PHOTO: STEPHEN COLDRINGTON ➝ COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG
CONFLICT MINERALS ➝ FAIRPHONE / JENS MIDDEL
PHOTO: ROB LAVINSKY ➝ IROCKS.COM
COLTAN, CONFLICT MINERAL IN EVERY CELL PHONE
PHOTO: KAREN HAYES ➝ PACT, INC
OIL SLICK AFTER DISASTER IN THE GULF OF MEXICO, MAY 24 2010
PHOTO: NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/GSFC
BURNING OIL WELLS, KUWAIT 1992 ➝ OPEN RE:SOURCE DESIGN / SOENKE ZEHLE
PHOTO: US MILITARY ➝ WWW.DEFENSEIMAGERY.MIL
COVER OF NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, JUNE 2004 ➝ SHAREABLE / NEAL GORENFLO
COVER PHOTO: SARAH LEEN ➝ NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, NGM.NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM