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超越垃圾场：关于南半球环境正义的对话
数字技术——从人工智能到智能手机和数据中心——通常被描述为“清洁”创新。然而，每一种设备都依赖于矿物、电力、劳动力和全球供应链，这引发了有关环境正义和发展的重要问题。
来源:密歇根大学Artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure and electronic waste are reshaping environmental justice across the Global South, but understanding those changes requires looking beyond simple narratives of technology, pollution and development
专家问答
Digital technologies—from artificial intelligence to smartphones and data centers—are often described as “clean” innovations.然而，每一种设备都依赖于矿物、电力、劳动力和全球供应链，这引发了有关环境正义和发展的重要问题。
As countries across the Global South play an increasingly important role in that system, researchers are examining how technology reshapes communities, health and the environment.
Bilal Butt is a professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. His research examines political ecology, environmental justice, health infrastructure and development across the Global South. He studies how governance, technology and environmental change shape communities and landscapes, with current work exploring environmental data justice and the politics of climate adaptation.
As investment in digital infrastructure grows across the Global South, what environmental justice questions are you most interested in exploring?
We try to look across the entire ecosystem rather than focusing on one technology in isolation. If there is going to be more technology infrastructure in the Global South, one of the first questions is: How will it be powered? Where will the electricity come from, and what infrastructure is needed to generate and transmit it? One example is the Lake Turkana wind power project in northern Kenya. The electricity generation project was completed years before the transmission infrastructure was ready to connect it to the national grid. Looking only at the technology misses the larger political and economic systems that make these projects possible.