Date/Time
Date(s) - 21/01/2021
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm

Title:    We can’t livewithout them-our love/hate relationship with digital technologies through anenvironmental lens 

Date:    Thursday, January 21, 2021 

Time:   1:30 p.m.  

Zoom:  please contact macchem@mcmaster.ca for Zoom details 

Host:    Dr. Britz-McKibbin 

Abstract:                    

 It would be hard to imaginenavigating today’s world without digital technologies and the pandemic has madethat prospect even more impossible.  In the environmental context, digitaltechnologies have been seen to be beneficial by enabling virtual communication,commerce, dating, exercising, and most activities that you can think of. On thenegative side, the impact of e-waste has gained attention as illegal shipmentsfrom high to low-income countries for recycling has caused widespreadenvironmental contamination. Less well known are the environmental and humanhealth impacts of digital technologies on resource use and the extent ofcontamination associated with the growing mass of e-waste. For example, ourdata show that e-waste handlers informal e-waste handling facilities in Ontarioand Quebec are exposed to higher air and dust concentrations of flameretardants than workers in informal settings in some low and middle incomecountries. As well, new information is emerging on potential health impacts toe-waste handlers. This seminar will start with these “first tier” impacts toreach today’s and future impacts associated with “surveillance capitalism”whereby global populations are increasingly tethered to digital technologiesfor the purpose of behavioural manipulation for profit and social control