Spring, 1997
The Dark Side of High-Tech Development
By Ted Smith
Silicon Valley is the birthplace of the high-tech revolution that has brought us technological advances unparalleled in human history, making it possible for humans to walk on the moon and to create a communications internet unimaginable until a few years ago. These same advances, however, have brought unparalleled threats to a sustainable future. The rapid growth of the industry -- up to 140 new semiconductor plants (each costing $1 - 3 billion) are planned for construction before the end of the century -- creates unprecedented challenges in 5 key areas.
1. Environmental Destruction
Silicon Valley has more Superfund contamination sites (29) than any other area in the country, with more than 150 ground water contamination sites. A State Health department study found a 3-fold increase of birth defects in a neighborhood where leaking chemicals contaminated the water supply.
High-tech plants discharge tons of many toxic air pollutants from their manufacturing processes.
- Semiconductor manufacturing uses more highly toxic gases than any other industry.
- Semiconductor plants use millions of gallons of water per day.
- More than 700 compounds are used to make one computer work station, which are designed to become obsolete immediately.
- More than 12 million computers -- amounting to more than 300,000 tons of electronic junk are disposed of annually.
2. Workers Bear the Brunt
Hundreds of chemicals are used in electronics manufacturing, subjecting the workers to a massive experiment in low level exposure to multiple toxics.
Semiconductor workers suffer industrial illnesses at 3 times the average for other manufacturing jobs. Three separate miscarriage studies (at DEC, IBM and an industry-wide study sponsored by the Semiconductor Industry Association) all found significantly increased miscarriage rates among women working in chemical handling jobs.
There are no unions in Silicon Valley high-tech companies, and the industry has vigorously fought against efforts to bring union scale wages and working conditions into the industry. High-tech industry lobbyists have been leaders in efforts to undermine the existing protections of labor laws.
3. Corporate Welfare
High-tech companies have been in the forefront of corporate strategies to whipsaw local communities into providing massive subsidies as a means of attracting new industrial development. Intel developed an "Ideal Incentive Matrix" itemizing over 100 subsidies and concessions it demanded as a condition of locating a new plant. New Mexico was the "winner" in the nation-wide competition and ended up giving away the store by providing an $8 billion industrial revenue bond to subsidize Intel.
There is a growing pattern for high-tech companies to play off communities--within the U.S. and globally--in an escalating competition to extract subsidies and concessions, in spite of the fact that sales and profits are growing exponentially.
4. Undermining Democracy & Environmental Standards
The "reinvention" of environmental regulations has emerged as international competitiveness issues have prompted a "lean and mean" approach to industrial management. The electronics industry has led the way in lobbying against the existing regulatory system, claiming it is incompatible with their strategic needs for "just in time" manufacturing and have been pressing to end many existing regulations that are designed to protect human health and public participation.
5. High-Tech Leads the Race to the Bottom
Increasingly, the "dirtier" processes of high-tech production are taking place in lower income communities and communities of color in the U.S. and throughout the third world, creating a whole system of environmental and economic injustice.
High-tech firms have led the lobbying efforts to promote new globalization structures such as NAFTA and GATT which have gone hand in hand with the development of maquiladoras along the U.S.-Mexican border and sub-standard development throughout Asia and many parts of the world. For all of these reasons, it is urgent that we develop a community-labor based global network to insist on sustainable development.
Ted Smith is the Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.
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