Nicole Starosielski's "Beaches, Fields, and other Network Environments made me realize how saturated our sea floors must be with cables that provide us with global communication. What happens to all of that inorganic material that has, or will, become obsolete. Once there is no use for it, it simply stays put...there is no proper disposing of a useless cable, like say for instance, the disposal culture that has developed around 'e-waste' on land, or is there? I wonder what the impact on aquatic life is of all this leftover material. Is it environmentally-friendly to the ocean and its sea life? Since people are land-based, the fiber-optic cable we use for communication is out of sight under the sea. The only time we see them is when they come up through manholes at landing points or those that inhabit our parks and cities. Not very many people know what becomes of undersea global communication infrastructure-waste, but it would be helpful to know. This could open up the possibility of cleaning up the vastness of our oceans. This would be a mega-undertaking, and it would take a global effort, in my view.
Love this post, Blanca, and I myself wonder about those hundreds of miles of obsolete (think Jonathan Sterne's article) cabling just rotting at the bottom of the ocean. It's not unlike the orbiting litter that supposedly populates the space around Earth, full of old satellites and parts left behind during astronaut missions (check out this article from just a few days back: "Time to Clear Space Junk from Earth's Orbit").
ReplyDeleteSome manmade objects have become useful substrates in the ocean, for coral or other marine life. Others, like our consumer plastics, have degraded into tiny bits and become part of the North Pacific Gyre, or what Greenpeace calls The Trash Vortex.