4 ms·
Not to sound overly cynical, but this looks like another "naive reporter discovers how the sausage is made" story. It's always good to get some perspective on t
by devindotcom 12y ago
Not to sound overly cynical, but this looks like another "naive reporter discovers how the sausage is made" story. It's always good to get some perspective on these things, but to this forum it doesn't seem like it will be a revelation. Tech manufacturing is an enormous and enormously dirty industry. We're all complicit, of course.
Separately, I'm not sure I like his usage of "dystopian."
- chrischen 12y agoHe definitely sounds like he formulated his opinion before he visited, and then shaped what he saw into an article justifying that opinion. You can tell because of all the presumptions he makes and suggestions that he never backs up with fact.
- ams6110 12y agoI agree; not sure it was a naive reporter or just one looking to report something sensational (truly objective journalism is harder and harder to find). But I would disagree that even here on this forum a lot of people are really aware of the true environmental impact of tech manufacturing. We've pushed most of that off to remote regions of asia that nobody in the west regularly sees or worries about. We just see the end product, be it finished hybrid or electric vehicles, wind turbines, or the latest gadget conspicuously packaged in recycled paperboard.
- panic 12y agoClearly some people were interested or it wouldn't have reached the front page. I'm not sure what your point is -- what's wrong with another "naive reporter discovers how the sausage is made" story?
- pc2g4d 12y agoFor me it made the costs of electronics manufacture more concrete. Yes, it could have been better reported, but the article has value.
- dleibovic 12y agoWhat about this story is not dystopian? We have a city with a toxic sludge lake created to power our obsession with replacing our phones every year.
- monochromatic 12y agoOne problem is we don't know if it's actually toxic. It's black and ugly, sure, but is it actually harmful? The modest radiation figure he quotes (3x background) is not particularly worrisome.
- Spooky23 12y agoI agree, it is overblown environmental concern. A city full of coal dust like a Dickens novel, with industrial pipes all over the place and pipes pumping mysterious black goo into a lake a few miles away sounds pretty.