Dear Bill Gates,
Thank you for thinking deeply about
the climate crisis. When I heard your interview on PBS News Hour last night, I
was struck by your mention that manufacturing is a major contributor of CO2,
which escalates the climate crisis. This puts you—a kind person at heart, a
billionaire and founder of Microsoft—in a unique position to make major change
quickly. For example, you could urge Microsoft, starting immediately, to stop developing
new operating systems—Microsoft would from now on focus on teaching people to
repair existing devices that run existing Microsoft operating systems. All new
software would be designed to run on existing operating systems. You would be leading
the way for others to follow, like the late radical industrialist Ray Anderson
did by continually reducing the carbon footprint of his industrial carpet
manufacturing corporation, Interface, Inc. Anderson was inspired by Paul Hawkin’s
1993 book The Ecology of Commerce, which argues that the industrial
system is destroying the planet and only industry leaders are powerful enough
to stop it. Now is your opportunity to urge Microsoft to be a model of reducing
carbon footprints in our interconnected globalized society.
You could explain how new operating
systems are connected to increased manufacturing, which accelerates the climate
crisis—every new operating system makes older electronic devices obsolete and
necessitates constantly manufacturing new devices to run always newer and newer
operating systems. Manufacturing adds CO2 to the atmosphere, which adds to the
greenhouse effect that causes ever more extreme weather, and melts glaciers and
the polar ice caps. (Glaciers and polar ice caps have been regulators of
climate and sources of water for plants and animals, including humans). You
could explain that manufacturing pollutes in other ways, too, starting with the
mining of minerals used to manufacture products, and to build the factories in
which to manufacture them.
In your PBS News Hour interview you
mentioned steel and cement manufacturing as major problems. If Microsoft stopped
creating new operating systems, and focused instead on supporting already-existing
operating systems, and repair of existing electronic devices, there would be
far less need for factories manufacturing electronic devices, less need for
manufacturing the cement and steel from which those factories are built, and
less need for mining and transporting the petroleum and minerals that go into manufacturing
factory buildings for manufacturing electronic devices.
What if you present some of the many
benefits to people and planet if Microsoft were to make that one change? For
example, miners I met in Oruro and Potosi, Bolivia tell me it’s usual to die at around age
45 from silicosis they get from mining the minerals that are used to make new
electronic devices. If Microsoft stopped making new operating systems, there
would be less need for new electronic devices to be manufactured, thereby
helping miners live longer and healthier lives. Less mining also means that people,
and all the plants and animals, who live downstream from current mining
operations would have cleaner water, and they would become healthier. Huge
amounts of CO2 would stay in the ground and thereby put the brakes on
accelerating climate crisis.
The climate would benefit by Microsoft
halting creation of new operating systems and teaching people to repair
existing electronic devices that use existing operating systems. And people
would also benefit by slowing down and making do with what they have. Businesses
could be more efficient, because they wouldn’t have to be constantly retraining
their staff to learn new operating systems, or deal with business shut downs
due to bugs in new operating systems. Workers and management could instead
better focus on doing their jobs. One efficiency expert said many years ago in
a Los Angeles Times interview that running a business using typewriters and
pencils and paper was much more time efficient in the long run than a business
using computers. Because, the efficiency expert said, businesses using
computers needed workers to be constantly retrained on the ever-changing
technology, while businesses using technology that stayed the same and functioned
as reliable tools could focus all their time on doing their work. When a worker
learns how to use a tool, and that tool stays the same, the worker becomes a
better and better worker using that tool. But workers’ energies are scattered when
the tool they use constantly changes how it functions (in this case, an electronic
device with a Microsoft operating system). As I mentioned above, the late
radical industrialist Ray Anderson woke up to the damage his corporation was
causing, and immediately set out to change its ways. You are a brilliant and
caring person, and I think you can have an even bigger positive impact on
climate and people’s lives around the world by urging Microsoft to support its
existing operating systems (instead of creating new ones), and teaching people
how to repair electronic devices instead of having to buy new ones. Just like workers
hone their skills using the same tools over long periods of time, the same is
true of culture and the arts.
When artists can devote all their
energies to creating art instead of dealing with technological difficulties of
their tools, such as computer programs that suddenly are not supported by a new
operating system, imagine the art and cultural Renaissance that could flourish!
For example, animated-filmmaker Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues, Seder-Masochism)
mastered her tool, Flash 8. But newer operating systems no longer support Flash
8, so she stopped making films altogether, rather than dedicate years to master
to the same level another animation program, which would likewise become unusable
in just a few years. We can only imagine what masterpieces are lost because
Nina Paley and other independent artists’ digital tools became useless due to ever-changing
operating systems.
Therefore, Microsoft calling a halt
on new operating systems could set a major precedent for shifting the tide
towards more efficient and sustainable ways of working and living. Businesses could
have less employee stress and burn out. Art and culture could flower. People,
plants and animals could be healthier. And runaway climate crisis could slow
down.
Dear Bill Gates, you are in a unique position. By having
the brilliance and resources to create whatever you set your mind to, you can take
this opportunity to make an immediate and powerful impact on slowing down the
climate crisis by publicly urging Microsoft to support all existing operating
systems and teach people how to repair their already-existing electronic
devices, and to stop making new operating systems. The world is watching.
Sincerely,
Lynette Yetter
cc: PBS News Hour
