At first, I was excited to speak with the new Climate and Energy Manager, Seth Vindana, today in an attempt to help him see the obvious connections between technology and the impact it has on the environment. Specifically, I wanted to talk to him about the benefits of a local Dig Once Policy, the precious resources that go into the manufacturing of electronics, and the amount of energy wireless communications use compared to fiber. 

Seth told me that while he was personally interested in energy usage, Dig Once, etc. and their impact on the environment, he has been forbidden by his boss, Public Works Director Eric Johnston, from discussing these issues or their effects on the environment with me or anyone else and that all communications related to them have to go through Eric Johnston effectively making this issue something that he can't learn about. At least not openly. Since Mayor Seth Fleetwood has been to my house for the Dig Once presentation and seemed to agree that it makes sense, I've put a call into him. I'll let you know. 
Interestingly, members of the CATF (Climate Action Task Force) also seem to agree that Dig Once makes sense, but tell me that they were not asked to discuss these issues even though they were outlined as environmental issues to them when they asked for public feedback.

You may ask, how are these environmental issues?  
Dig Once assures that we are doing the most work in the most efficient manner possible. We would not only preparing our city for the future, but attract clean, next-generation, high paying jobs, and enable fuel-saving technologies like telemedicine, telecommuting, and online education, but it also assures that we do as little damage to the environment as possible by digging up our roads and land as infrequently as possible. This has other advantages like not disrupting traffic flow any more than necessary and keeping our city flowing for our citizens. Dig Once also ties into any other infrastructure project that requires excavation like transportation projects, water, and sewer upgrades and repairs, public renewable energy and more.

On the topic of wireless. We currently use about 43 Terra-watts of energy on wireless communications nationwide. While wireless may be convenient, from a performance standpoint, it is inferior to the fiber-optic cabling backing it up in many ways. As covered in the book "Fiber" by Susan Crawford, wireless is an extension to a wired network, not a replacement for it. When I met with Eric Johnston and tried to explain the different technologies he might consider, he pushed Verizon as hard as possible and tried to shut me up by yelling at me a lot. It didn't work, since city attorney James Erb was in the room, and I stayed on topic, but it does show that our upper-echelon staff is still running the government with no input from our elected officials or citizens. It also shows that Eric doesn't care what the citizens have to say, he doesn't even want to hear from them. By the way, his salary is $162,840 a year with an excellent benefits package. The average household income in Bellingham is $42,800 a year ($28,000 per individual). So he makes almost 6 times what most individuals in Bellingham make.    

Anyway, we expect the energy consumption of wireless tech to go up to at least 60 Terrawatts within the next 5 years. So another 17 Terrawatts! A modern nuclear power plant produces only about 1 Gigawatt and most of the power plants in Washington use natural gas. We should note that wireless equipment also does not last nearly as long as the fiber backing it up. FIber can last 100 years, with no need to replace the fiber itself for upgrades but the equipment hooked up to it instead. Wireless tech is lucky to last 15. So we can see that the choices we make in how we use technology will have many adverse effects on the environment making this an environmental issue. Fiber uses almost no energy in comparison and keeps getting better. So it's a real issue that the COB should be taking seriously. The fact that Eric is refusing to make the connections between tech and the environment and not allowing our Climate Energy Manager to, can only be bad for the citizens of Bellingham in the long run. This is a topic that our new Climate and Energy Manager should be learning about and incorporating into his recommendations.

We only ask that we finally are allowed to make a 40-minute presentation on fiber and Dig Once to our council, mayor and department directors. This administration can not say it's an environmental administration if we don't consider the impact of technology on the environment. It is also time for the COB to establish a Citizen Technology Committee which would go a long way to avoiding misunderstandings and helping the city make the best choices when it comes to our use of technology.
In all of the years I've been working on broadband issues in Bellingham I have never understood why the COB is so afraid of having open, transparent, conversations about technology. It's past time. Come on Mayor Fleetwood, let's be different than the last administration on this issue. What does it say about our government that staff members are being muzzled by their bosses? How many other issues are staff members being bullied by their bosses on? How is it affecting our city?

We can do better than a public works director that doesn't believe in free speech and doesn't want to interact with the citizens that pay their salary. There are a lot more community-minded people out there willing to work for $162,840 dollars a year with excellent benefits. Let's give the job to someone that will appreciate it. The stalwart citizens of Bellingham deserve no less.