This is true as far as it goes – but it is also a gross oversimplification. Information changes the world. It is auto-catalysing – the more you have, the more you generate – and it is impossible from this vantage point to predict the results of what some call the ‘information revolution’, others the ‘knowledge society’. All that can be done is to sketch out a schematic conceptual framework within which we may at least begin to ask the right questions.

The most basic level is manufacture of telecom devices – making switches, routers, cell phones, television sets, personal computers. This is the traditional focus of environmental professionals, and is fairly well understood, although implementing appropriate standards, especially in some developing countries, requires continued attention.

Life cycles
The next level is considering the whole life cycle of the device, attempting to understand its impact on the environment while it is being used and when it reaches the end of its life. The methodologies for understanding complex manufactured objects over their life cycle and designing them appropriately (design for environment) are still primitive. But this level is at least recognized conceptually, and is being addressed, especially in Europe.

The third level involves the construction and maintenance of networks and infrastructure. Here the issues become broader, including everything from constructing land-line facilities properly through environmentally sensitive wetlands and habitats, to the overall energy efficiency of network operations, to the maintenance of the fleets of vehicles needed to keep the network running well. In some cases, including network energy efficiency, economics drives appropriate behaviour; in others, such as land use or vehicle emission systems, regulations control environmental impacts. It is probably fair to say that this level is also reasonably well understood and managed from an environmental perspective, although the dynamics can be tricky because networks are complex systems.

More importantly, perhaps, social issues arise for the first time: one may argue that, where the coverage of networks is not universal, differential access to information and knowledge may develop between, for example, rich and poor in the ‘digital divide’. Such social issues must be addressed, although the appropriate division of labour among governments, private firms and non-governmental organizations has yet to be stabilized.

Information changes the world... the more you have the more you generate

Our degree of knowledge is relatively low, however, about the fourth level – services such as broadband communications, and social practices based on them, such as teleworking. Teleworking provides a good example. Although the practice has been around for decades, critically important questions remain unresolved: for example, how do its environmental and social implications differ among cultures and/or what are its long-term demographic and distributional effects?

We are almost completely at sea when it comes to more complex information systems. For example, the Internet – and services built on it, such as e-commerce – is rapidly evolving, and having significant impacts across economic, cultural and social systems. But asking the question, ‘What are the life cycle environmental and social impacts of the Internet?’ illustrates how little we know. Partly this is because we lack data and research, but more fundamentally it is the result of the profound cultural power of information systems at this scale.