It's more expensive than you think

October was Spooky Lakes month. Started by artist, teacher, and author Geo Rutherford, the annual October series on TikTok details 31 days of what Rutherford refers to as “haunted hydrology.” Each day a different lake or water-related phenomenon is presented with spooky undertones. This year, one of her videos was simply titled “Toxic Lake,” and provided a striking example of how technology can have drastic human and environmental costs.

In 1978, then dictator of Romania, Nicolae Ceaușescu, ordered the picturesque mountain village of Geamana to be evacuated. Approximately 400 families, many of whom could trace their ancestry in the area back thousands of years, were forced to leave their homes, community, and interred loved ones. The reason for the evacuation was the nearby Roșia Poieni copper mine.

Copper is mined using an open pit process. Simply put, the top layer of land is dug up by machinery exposing mineral-rich rock underneath. The rock is then blasted, removed, crushed, and mixed with water. Chemicals are added to the resulting mix which bond to the desired minerals allowing them to be separated. The copper goes on to be smelted, leaving the mix of pulverized rock, unutilized metals, and water, referred to as tailings.

Tailings can contain chemical residue as well as high concentrations of degrading minerals posing an environmental hazard to groundwater and aquatic ecosystems. In more modern mining operations, these tailings go through a process called impounding where through a variety of methods the water is recycled, and the solids are isolated from the environment.

For Geamana in 1978, there were no such environmental considerations, and Ceaușescu allowed the Roșia Poieni copper mine to decant its tailings into the mountain valley that was home to the village, flooding it with sludge. As time has passed, the various minerals in the viscous lake have degraded resulting in brilliant colours of oranges, yellows, and blues, with remnants of the village poking up through this toxic rainbow. As the mine has continued to operate, the level of the lake continues to increase slowly wiping any trace of Geamana from view and threatening the ecology of the surrounding area with its highly acidic waters.

Every aspect of our lives is touched by copper. From the wiring in our homes that deliver electricity, to the conductive elements in our smart devices, all include copper as a critical component. In terms of making individual environmental choices, just opting out of using copper isn’t really a realistic one. Yet, copper comes with a very stark legacy of environmental harm. This is also true of many other minerals used in our technology, such as lithium. Extracting minerals from the ground is an environmentally disruptive and hazardous business.

Artificial Intelligence is already changing our ecological landscape. Google and Microsoft have both revealed that their carbon emissions have increased since they focused on AI. The vast amount of electricity needed to power the generative AI tools they are integrating into their products, especially where that electricity is generated by coal-fired plants, has meant an increase in carbon dioxide emissions which contribute to climate change.

Both companies have announced they are looking to nuclear power in their ongoing efforts to be “carbon neutral.” However, calling nuclear power carbon neutral does not take into account the environmental impact of the mining of uranium or the management of the resulting waste products. In her book Atlas of AI, Kate Crawford states the backbone of AI is, “made of rocks and lithium, brine and crude oil.” Every process and device associated with AI, whether the computer components or the electricity that powers them involves mining.

Philosopher and actress, Abigail Thorn, states in her video essay AI is an Ethical Nightmare that, “the idea that the tech sector … is ‘clean’ is a very profitable lie.” She details all the different stages at which technology like AI involves human labour, including data labeling that can expose workers to traumatic, violent and exploitative imagery. Much like e-waste recycling (discussed in a previous article), AI relies on a massive hidden workforce that is undervalued and unprotected.

While we rely on the technology we use, we need to understand that the cost of our devices is more than the dollar amount we personally paid. Technology irrevocably changes the landscape of our world, and directly affects humans involved in its creation. The fate of the people of Geamana, of which only a handful still live at the fringes of the toxic lake that swallowed their village, is only one of many examples of this. Individually just not using technology at all might not be an option, but we can advocate as consumers and the voting public to ensure that corporations and policy makers better protect humans and the environment when making decisions around the use, adoption, and production of technology.

Learn more

Toxic Lake. 2024. Geo Rutherford. (TikTok) Last accessed 2024/11/6.

Geamana, Romania. (Atlas Obscura) Last accessed 2024/11/6.

Visiting the World's Deepest Copper Mine. 2024. Aaron Witt. (YouTube) Last accessed 2024/11/6.

The Unknown Side of Copper Mining - Tailings. 2024. Aaron Witt. (YouTube) Last accessed 2024/11/6.

See the grotesque beauty of mining waste. 2021. Hicks Wogan with photographs by Gheorghe Popa. (National Geographic - Paywalled) Last accessed 2024/11/6.

Wildlife photographer of the year: a beautifully poisonous landscape. Tammana Begum with photographs by Gheorghe Popa. (Natural History Museum) Last accessed 2024/11/6.

The dark side of Rosia Poieni, Europe’s second largest copper mine. 2016. (SystExt) Last accessed 2024/11/6.

AI Is an Ethical Nightmare. 2024. Philosophy Tube. (YouTube) Last accessed 2024/11/6.

Tech Giants harness nuclear energy to power AI. 2024. BBC. (YouTube) Last accessed 2024/11/6.

AI brings soaring emissions for Google and Microsoft, a major contributor to climate change. 2024. Dara Kerr. (NPR) Last accessed 2024/11/6.

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