Transcript for:
Chapter 1: A Question of Design

chapter 1 a question of design in the spring of 1912 one of the largest moving objects ever created by human beings left southampton england and began gliding towards new york it appeared to be the epitome of its industrial aids a potent representation of technology prosperity luxury and progress it weighed 66 000 tons it still hall stretched the length of four city blocks each of its steam engine was the size of a townhouse and it was headed for a disastrous encounter with the natural world this vessel of course was a titanic a brood of a ship seemingly impervious to the forces of the natural world in the minds of the captain the crew and many of the passengers nothing could sink it one might say that the titanic was not only a product of the industrial revolution but remains an apt metaphor for the industrial infrastructure that revolution created like that famous ship this infrastructure is powered by brutus and artificial sources of energy that are environmentally depleting it pours waste into the water and smoke into the sky it attempts to work by its own rules which are contrary to those of nature and although it may seem invincible the fundamental flaws in its design process tragedy and disaster a brief history of the industrial revolution imagine that you have been given the assignment of designing the industrial revolution retrospectively with respect to its negative consequences the assignment would have to read something like this design a system of production that point one puts billions of pounds of toxic materials into the air water and soil every year 0.2 produces some materials so dangerous they will require constant vigilance by future generation 0.3 results in gigantic amounts of waste 0.4 puts valuable materials in the holes all over the planet where they can never be retrieved 0.5 requires thousands of complex regulations not to keep people and natural systems safe but rather to keep them from being poisoned too quickly point six measures productivity by how few people are working point seven create prosperity by digging up or cutting down natural resources and then burning or burning them final point erodes the diversity of species and cultural practices of course the industrialists engineers inventors and others mine behind the industrial revolution never intended such consequences in fact the industrial revolution as a whole was never really designed it took safe gradually as industrialists engineers and designers try to solve problems and to take immediate advantage of what they considered to be opportunities in an unprecedented period of massive and rapid change it began with textiles in england where agriculture had been the main occupation for centuries pageants farmed the manna and town gills provided food and goods an industry consisted of craftspeople working individually as a side venture to farming within a few decades this cottage industry depended on the craft of individual laborers for the production of small quantities of woolen cloth was transformed into a mechanized factory system that churned out fabric much of it now cotton instead of wool by the mile this change was spurred by a quick succession of new technologies in the mid 1700s cottage workers spun thread on spinning wheels in their homes working the pedals with their hands and feet to make one trade at a time the spinning journey patented in 1770 increased the number of trades from 1 to 8 then 16 then more later models would spin as many as 80 trades simultaneously other mechanized equipment such as the water frame and the spinning mule increase production levels at such a pace it must have seemed something like moore's law bracket open named for gordon moore a founder of intel bracket close in which the processing speed of computer chips roughly doubles every 18 months in pre-industrial times exported fabrics would travel by canal or sailing ships which were slow and unreliable in poor weather weighted with high duties and strict laws and vulnerable to piracy in fact it was a wonder the cargo got to its destination at work the railroad and the steamship allowed product to be moved more quickly and further by 1840 factories that had once made a thousand articles a week had the means and motivation to produce a thousand articles a day fabric workers grew too busy to farm and moved into towns to be closer to factories where they and their families might work 12 or more hours a day urban areas spread goods proliferated and city populations increased more more more jobs people products factories businesses markets seem to be the rule of the day like all paradigm saved this one encountered resistance curtis workers afraid of losing work and luddites bracket open followers of ned lord bracket close experienced cloth makers angry about the new machines and the unapprenticed workers who operated them smashed labor-saving equipments and made life difficult for the investors some of whom died outcast and penniless before they could profit from their new machines assistance tossed not simply on technology but on a spiritual and imaginative life the romantic poets articulated the growing difference between the rural natural landscape and that of the city often in despairing terms caught cities are nothing less than overgrown prisons that sought out the world and all its beauties unquote wrote the poet john claire artists and states like john ruskin and william morris feared for a civilization whose aesthetic sensibility and physical structures were being received by materialistic design there were other more lasting problems the victorian london was notorious for having been caught the great and dirty city unquote as charles dickens called it and its unhealthy environment and suffering under classes became hallmarks of the burgeoning industrial city london air was so creamy from airborne pollutants especially emissions from burning coal that people would change their coughs and collars at the end of the day bracket open behavior that would be repeated in chattanooga during the 1960s and even today in beijing or manila bracket close in early factories and other industrial operations such as mining materials were considered expensive but people were often considered cheap children as well as adults worked for long hours in deplorable conditions but the general spirit of early industrialists and of many others at the time was one of the great optimism and faith in the progress of humankind as industrialization boomed other institutions immersed that assisted its rise commercial banks stocks exchanges and the commercial price all opened further employment opportunities for the new middle class and tighten the social network around economic growth cheaper products public transportation water distribution and sanitation waste collection laundries safe housing and other conveniences gave people both rich and poor what appeared to be a more equitable standard of living no longer did the laser classes alone have access to all the comforts the industrial revolution was not planned but it was not without a motive at bottom it was an economic revolution driven by the desire for the acquisition of capital industrialists wanted to make products as effectively as possible and to get the greatest volume of goods to the largest number of people in most industries this meant shifting from a system of manual labor to one of the efficient mechanization consider cars in the early 1890s the automobile was made to meet a customer's specification by crafts people who are usually independent contractors for example a machine tool company in paris which happened to be the leading manufacturer of cars at the time produced only several hundred a year they were luxury items built slowly and carefully by hand there was no standard system of measuring and gazing parts and no way to cut hard steel so parts were created by different contractors hardened under heat and individually filled down to feed the hundreds of other parts in the car no two were alike no could they be henry ford worked as an engineer a machinist and a builder of race cars which he himself raced before founding the ford motor company in 1903. after producing a number of early vehicles ford realized that to make cars for the modern american worker not just for the wealthy he would need to manufacture vehicles cheaply and in great quantities in 1908 his company began producing the legendary model t the car for the great multitude that ford had dreamed of constructed of the best materials by the best men to be hired after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own it in the following years several aspects of manufacturing messed to achieve this goal revolutionizing car production and rapidly increasing level of efficiency first centralization in 1909 ford announced that the company would produce only model ts and in 1910 moved to a much larger factory that would use electricity for its power and gather a number of products and processes under one roof the most famous of ford's innovation is the moving smd line in early production the engines friends and bodies of the cars were assembled separately then brought together for final assembly by a group of workmen fourths was to bring the materials to the man instead of the man to the materials he and his engineers developed a moving assembly line based on the ones used in the chicago beef industry it carried materials to the workers and at its most efficient enabled each of them to repay a single operation as the vehicles move down the line reducing overall level time dramatically this and other advances made possible the mass production of the universal car the modality from a centralized location where many vehicles reassembled at once increasing efficiency boost cost of the model t down from 850 in 1908 to 290 dollar in 1925 and sales skyrocketed by 1911 before the introduction of the assembly line sales of the model t had totaled 39 640 by 1927 total sales raised 15 million the advantages of standardized centralized production were manifold obviously it could bring greater quicker affluence to industrialist on another front manufacturing was viewed as what winston churchill referred to as the arsenal of democracy because the productive capacity was so huge it could break it open as in the two world wars bracket close produce an undeniably potent response to war conditions mass production had another democratizing aspect as the model t demonstrated when prices of a previously unattainable item or service plummeted more people had access to it new work opportunities in factories improved standards of living as it was increases ford himself assisted in this shift in 1914 when the prevailing salary for factory workers was 2.34 cents a day he hiked it to five dollars pointing out that cars cannot buy cars bracket open he also reduced the hours of the workday from nine to eight bracket close in one fell sook he actually created his own market and raised the bar for the entire world of industry viewed from a design perspective the modality epitomized the general goal of the first industrialist to make a product that was desirable affordable and operable by anyone just about anywhere that lasted a certain amount of time break it open until it was time to buy a new one bracket closed and that could be produced cheaply and quickly along these lines technical developments centered on increasing power accuracy economy system continuity speed to use the fourth manufacturing cyclist for the mass production for obvious reasons the design goals of early industrialists were quite specific limited to the practical profitable efficient and linear many industrialist designers and engineers did not see their designs as part of a larger system outside of an economic one but they did share some general assumption about the world those essences unsensed by men early industries relied on a seemingly endless supply of natural capital or timber water grain cattle coal land these were the raw materials for the production systems that made goods for the masses and they still are today ford's river roots plant epitomized the flow of production on a massive scale huge quantities of iron coal sand and other raw materials entered one side of the facility and once inside were transformed into new cars industries fattened as they transformed resources into products the priorities were overtaken for agriculture and the great forest were cut down for wood and fuel factories situated themselves near natural resources for easy access bracket open today a prominent window company is located in a place that was originally surrounded by giant pines used for the window frames bracket closed and beside bodies of water which they used both for manufacturing processes and to dispose of waste in the 19th century when these practices began the subtle qualities of the environment were not a widespread concern resources seemed immeasurably fast nature itself was perceived as a mother earth who perpetually regenerative would absorb all things and continue to grow even ralph waldo immersion of president philosopher and poet with a careful eye for nature reflected a common belief when in the early 1830s he described nature as essences unchanged by men space the air the river the leak many people believed there would always be an expanse that remained unspoiled and innocent the popular fiction of rudet kipling and others evolved while parts of the world that still existed and it seemed always wood at the same time the western view saw nature as a dangerous brutus forced to be civilized and subdued humans perceived natural forces as hostile so they attacked back to exit control in the united states taming the frontier too on the power of defining me and conquering wild natural places was recognized as a cultural even spiritual imperative today our understanding of nature has dramatically changed new studies indicate that the oceans the air the mountains and the plants and animals that inhabit them are more vulnerable than early innovators ever imagined but modern industries still operate according to paradigm that developed when humans had a very different sense of the world neither the health of natural systems nor an awareness of their delicacy complexity and interconnectedness have been part of the industrial design agenda at its deepest foundation the industrial infrastructure we have today is linear it is focused on making a product and getting it to the customer quickly and cheaply without considering materials to be sure the industrial revolution brought a number of positive social changes with higher standard of living life expectancy greatly increased medical care and education greatly improved and became more widely available electricity telecommunications and other advances raised comfort and convenience to a new level technological advances brought the so-called developing nations enormous benefits including the increased productivity of agricultural land and vastly increased harvest and food storage for growing population but there were fundamental flaws in the industrial revolutions design they resulted in some crucial omissions and devastating consequences have been handed down to us along with the dominant assumption of the era in which the transformation took shape from cradle to grape imagine what you would come open today at a typical landfill old furniture upholstery carpets televisions clothing shoes telephones computers complex products and plastic packaging as well as organic materials like diapers paper wood and food waste most of these products were made from valuable materials that required effort and expense to extract and make billions of dollars worth of material assets the biodegradable materials such as food matter and paper actually have value too they could decompose and return biological nutrients to the soil unfortunately all of these things are hipped in a landfill where their value is wasted they are the ultimate products of an industrial system that is designed on a linear one-way cradle to grape model resources are extracted saved into products sold and eventually disposed of in a grape of some kind usually a landfill or incinerator you are probably familiar with the end of this process because you the customer are responsible for dealing with its detritus think about it you may be referred to as a customer but there is a very little that you actually consume some food some liquids everything else is designed for you to throw away when you are finished with it but worries away of course a weight doesn't really exist always has gone away cradle to grave designs dominate modern manufacturing according to some accounts more than 90 of materials extracted to make durable goods in the united states become waste almost immediately sometimes the product itself scarcely lasts longer it is often cheaper to buy a new version of even the most expensive appliance than to track down someone to repair the original item in fact many products are designed with built-in obsolescence to last only for a certain period of time to allow to encourage the customers to get rid of the thing and buy a new model also what most people see in their garbage cans is just the tip of a material ice work the product itself contains on average only five percent of the raw materials involved in the process of making and delivering it one size fits all because the cradle-to-crap model underlying the design assumptions of the industrial revolution was not called into question even movements that were formed ostensibly in opposition to that era manifested its flaws one example has been the push to achieve universal design solutions which immersed as a leading design strategy in the last century in the field of architecture this strategy took the form of the international style movement advanced during the early decades of the 28th century by figures such as ludwig miss van der rohe walter gropius and lee gropizier who were reacting against victorian era styles bracket open gothic cathedrals were still being proposed and built bracket clothes their goals were social as well as aesthetic they wanted to globally replace unsanitary and inequitable housing fancy honored places for the rich ugly unhealthy places for the poor with clean minimalist affordable buildings unencumbered by distinctions of oil or class large seeds of glass steel and concrete and cheap transportation powered by fossil fuels gave engineers and architects the tools for realizing this style anywhere in the world today the international style has evolved into something less ambitious a blend uniform structure isolated from the particulars of place from local culture nature energy and material flows such buildings reflect little if any of a reason's distinctness or style they often stand out like sore thumbs from the surrounding landscape if they leave any of it intact around their office parks of asphalt and concrete the interiors are equally uninspiring with their sealed windows constantly humming air conditioners heating system lack of daylight and fresh air and the uniform fluorescent lighting they might as well have been designed to house machines not humans the originators of the international style intended to convey hope in the brotherhood of humankind those who use this style today do so because it is easy and cheap and makes architecture uniform in many settings buildings can look and work the same anywhere in reykjavik or rangoon in product design a classic example of the universal design solution is mass-produced detergent major shop manufacturers design one detergent for all parts of the united states or europe even though water qualities and community needs differ for example customers in places with soft water like the northwest need only small amounts of detergent those where the water is hard like the southwest need more but detergents are designed so that they will lather up remove dirt and kill germs efficiently the same way anywhere in the world in hard soft woven or spring water in water that flows into fist-filled streams and water channeled to sewage treatment plants manufacturers just add more chemical force to wipe out the conditions of circumstance imagine the strength a detergent must have to stripe day old grease from a greasy pan now imagine what happens when that detergent comes into contact with the slippery skin of a fish or the waxy coating of a plant treated and untreated affluents as well as runoff are released into legs rivers and oceans combinations of chemicals from household detergents cleansers and medicines along with industrial waste end of in swiss effluents where they have been shown to harm aquatic life in some cases causing mutations and infertility to achieve the universal design solutions manufacturers design for a worst case scenario they design a product for the worst possible circumstance so that it will always operate with the same efficacy this aim guarantees the largest possible market for our product it also reveals human industry's peculiar relationship to the natural world since designing for the worst case at all times reflects the assumption that nature is the enemy brute force if the first industrial revolution had a motto we like to joke it would be if brute force doesn't work you are not using enough of it the attempt to impose universal design solutions on an infinite number of local conditions and customs is one manifestation of this principle and its underlying assumption that nature should be overwhelmed so is the principle of the chemical brute force and fossil fuel energy necessary to make such solutions fit all of nature's industry relies on energy from the sun which can be viewed as a form of current constantly renewing income humans by contrast extract and burn fossil fuels such as coal and petrochemicals that have been deposited deep down the earth's surface supplementing them with energy produced through waste incineration processes and nuclear reactors that create additional problems they do this with little or no attention to harnessing and maximizing local natural energy flows the standard operating instruction seems to be if too hot or too cold just add more fossil fuels you are probably familiar with the trade of global warming brought about by the build-up of heat trapping gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to human activities increasing global temperatures result in global climate change and shifts of existing climate most models predict more severe weather hotter hots cooler colds and more intense storm as global thermal contrast grow more extreme a warmer atmosphere draws more water from oceans resulting in bigger wetter more frequent storms rising sea level shifts in seasons and a chain of other climatic events the reality of global warming has gained currency not only among environmentalists but among industry leaders but global warming is not the sole reason to rethink our reliance on the brute force approach to energy incinerating fossil fuels contributes particulates microscopic particles of soot to the environment where they are known to cause respiratory and other health problems regulations for airborne pollutants known to trade health are growing more severe as new regulations based on mounting research about the health threats of airborne toxins resulting from incinerating fossil fuels are implemented industries invested solely in continuing the current system will be at a serious disadvantage even beyond these important issues brute force energy doesn't make good sense as a dominant strategy over a long term you wouldn't want to depend on saving for all of your daily expenditures so why rely on savings to meet all of humans energy needs clearly over the years petrochemicals will become harder and more expensive to get and drilling in pristine places for a few million more drums of oil isn't going to solve that problem in a sense finite sources of energy such as petrochemicals derived from fossil fuels can be seen as a nest egg something to be preserved for emergency then used sparingly in certain medical situations for example for the majority of our simple energy needs human could be accuring a great deal of current solar income of which there is plenty thousands of times the amount of energy needed to fuel human activities hit the surface of the planet every day in the form of sunlight a culture of monoculture under the existing paradigm of manufacturing and development diversity and integral element of the natural world is typically treated as a hostile force and a trait to design goals brute force and universal design approaches to typical development tend to overwhelm and ignore natural and cultural diversity resulting in less variety and greater homogeneity consider the process of building a typical universal house first builders scrape away everything on the site until there is a bit of clay or undisturbed soil several machines then come in and set the clay to a level surface trees are filled natural flora and phone are destroyed or frightened away and the generic mini mcmansion or modular home rises with little regard for the natural environment around it ways the sun might come in to heat the house during the winter which trees might protect it from wind heat and cold and how soil and water health can be preserved now and in the future a two inch carpet of foreign species of grass is placed over the rest of the lot the average loan is an interesting beast people plant it then douse it with artificial fertilizers and dangerous pesticides to make it grow and to keep it uniform all so that they can hack and move what they encourage to grow and woe to the small yellow flower that rears its head rather than being designed around a natural and cultural landscape most modern urban areas simply grow as has often been said like cancer spreading more and more of themselves eradicating the living environment in the process blanketing the natural landscape within layers of asphalt and concrete conventional agriculture tends to work along the same line the goal of mid-western commercial corn operation is to produce as much corn as possible with the least amount of trouble time and expense the industrial revolution's first design goal of maximum efficiency most conventional operations today focus on highly specialized hybridized and perhaps genetically modified species of corn they develop a monocultural landscape that appears to support only one particular corn that's likely not even a true species but some over hybridized cultivar planters remove other species of plant life using tillage which leads to massive soil erosion from wind and water or no-till farming which requires massive applications of herbicide ancient strains of corn are lost because their output does not meet the demands of modern commerce on the surface these strategies seem reasonable to modern industry and even to consumers but they harbor both underlying and overlying problems elements that are removed from the ecosystem to make the operation yield more grain more quickly that is to make it more efficient would otherwise actually provide benefits to farming the plants removed by tillage for example could have helped to prevent erosion and flooding and to stabilize and rebuild soil they would have provided habitat for insects and birds some of them natural enemies of crop paste now as pests grow resistant to pesticide their numbers increase because their natural enemies have been wiped out pesticides as typically designed are a perennial cost both to farmers and to the environment and represent a less than mindful use of chemical brute force although chemical companies warn farmers to be careful with pesticides they benefit when more of them are sold in other words the companies are unintentionally invested in profligacy with even the mishandling of their products which can result in contamination of the soil water and air in such an artificially maintained system where the natural enemies of paste and some of the nutrient cycling plants and organisms have been eliminated more chemical brute force must be applied to keep the system commercially stable soil is depleted of nutrients and saturated with chemicals people may not want to live too close to the operation because they fear chemical runoff rather than being anesthetic and cultural delight more in agriculture becomes a terror and a fright to local residents who want to live and raise families in a healthy setting while the economic payoff immediately rises the overall quality of every aspect of the system is actually in decline the problem here is not agriculture per se but the narrowly focused goals of the operation the single-minded cultivation of one species drastically reduces the rich network of services and side effects in which the entire ecosystem originally increased to this day conventional agriculture is still as scientist paul and anne early and john holdren said several decades ago a simpler of ecosystems replacing relatively complex natural biological communities with relatively simple man-made ones based on a few strains of crops these simple systems cannot survive on their own ironically simplification necessitates even more brute force for the system to achieve its design goals take away the chemicals and the modern modes of agricultural control and the crops would languish bracket open until there is diverse species gradually crept back returning complexity to the ecosystem bracket closed activity equals prosperity an interesting fact the 1991 as oil spill actually increased alaska's gross domestic product the prince william sound area was registered as economically more prosperous because so many people were trying to clean up the spill restaurants hotels shops gas stations and stores all experienced an awkward blip in economic accents the gdp takes only one measure of progress into account activity economic activity but what sensible person would call the effects of an oil spill progress by some accounts the wealth is accident led to the death of more wildlife than any other human engineer environmental disaster in us history according to a 1999 government report only two of the 23 animal species affected by the spill we covered its impact on face and wildlife continues today with tumors genetic damage and other effects they spill lead to losses of cultural well including five state parks four state critical habited areas and a state game sanctuary important habitats for fish spawning and raiding were damaged which may have led to the 1993 decimation of the prince william sounds specific hearing population bracket open perhaps because of a viral infection due to oil exposure bracket closed the spill took a significant toll on fisherman's income not to mention that less miserable effects on moral and emotional health the gdp as a measure of progress emerged during an era when natural resources still seemed unlimited and quality of life meant high economic standards of living but if prosperity is just only by increased economic activity then car accidents hospital visits illness such as cancer and toxic spills are all signs of prosperity loss of resources cultural depletion negative social and environmental effects reduction of quality of life these ills can all be taking place an entire reason can be in decline yet they are negated by a simplistic economic figure that says economic life is good countries all over the world are trying to boost their level of economic activity so they too can grab a share of the progress that measures like the gdp profound but in the race of economic progress social activity ecological impact cultural activity and long-term effects can be overlooked crude products the design intention behind the current industrial infrastructure is to make an attractive product that's affordable meets regulation performs well enough and lasts long enough to meet the market expectation such a product fulfills the manufacturer desires and some of the customers expectation as well but from our perspective products that are not designed particularly for human and ecological health are unintelligent and inelegant what we call fruit products for example the average mass-produced piece of polyester clothing and a typical water bottle both contain antimony or toxic heavy metal known to cause cancer under certain circumstances let's put aside for the moment the issues of whether this substance represent a specific danger to the user the question we should pose as designer is why is it there is it necessary actually it's not necessary antimony is a current catalyst in the polymerization process and it is not necessary for polyester production what happens when this disregarded product is recycled that is down cycled and mixed with other materials what about when it is burned along with other trash as cooking fuel a common practice in developing countries incineration makes the antimony bioavailable that is available for breathing if polystyrene might be used for fuel we need polystars that can be safely burned that polystyrene surge and that water bottle are both examples of what we call product plus as a buyer you got the item or service you wanted plus additives that you did not ask for and did not know were included and that may be harmful to you and your loved ones break it open maybe certain levels should read product contains toxic dyes and catalysts don't work of a sweat or they will leach onto your skin blacked clothes moreover these extra ingredients may not be necessary to the product itself since 1987 we have been studying various products from major manufacturers ordinary things such as a computer mouse an electric saver a popular handheld video game a hairdryer and a portable cd player we found that during use they all of gas teratogenic and slash or carcinogenic compounds substances known to have a role in causing birth defects and cancer an electric hand mixer emitted chemical gases that got trapped in the oily butter molecules of the cake batter and ended up in the cake so be careful you might unintentionally be eating your appliances why does it happen the reason is that high tech products are usually composed of low quality materials that is cheap plastics and dyes globally sourced from the lowest cost provider which may be halfway around the world this means that even substances banned for use in the united states and europe can raise this country via products and parts made elsewhere so for example the carcinogen benzene banned for use as a solvent in american factories can be saved here in rubber parts that were manufactured in developing countries that have not banded they can be assembled into say your treadmill which will then emit the banned substance as you exercise the problem intensifies when parts from numerous countries are assembled in one product as is often the case with high-tech items such as electronic equipment and appliances manufacturers do not necessarily keep track of nor are they required to know what exactly is in all of these parts an exercise machine assembled in the united states may contain rubber bales from malaysia chemicals from korea motors from china adhesives from taiwan and wood from brazil how do these fruit products affect you they produce poor indoor air quality for one thing combined in the workplace or home crude products weather appliances carpets wallpaper adhesives pens building materials insulation or anything else make the average indoor air more contaminated than outdoor air one study of household contaminants found that more than half of the household sowed concentration of seven toxic chemicals known to cause cancer in animals and are suspected to cause cancer in humans at levels higher than those that would trigger a formal risk assessment for residential soil at a superfund size allergies asthma and sick building syndrome are on the rise yet legislation establishing mandatory standards for indoor air quality is practically non-existent even products ostensibly designed for children can be crude products an analysis of a child's swim wings made from polyvinyl chloride so that they off-cast potentially harmful substances including under heat hydrochloric acid other harmful substances like the plasticizing fallout may be ingested through contact this scenario is particularly alarming in a swimming pool since a child's skin 10 times thinner than the skin of an adult gets wrinkled when wet the ideal condition for absorbing toxins once again in purchasing swim wings you have inadvertently purses or product class you got the floatation device you wanted for your child plus unasked for toxins not a great bargain and surely not what the manufacturers had in mind when they created this style safety device you may be saying to yourself i certainly don't know any children who have gotten sick from a plastic floor or poor but rather than a readily identifiable illness some people develop an allergy or multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome or asthma or they just do not feel well without knowing exactly why even if we experience no immediate ill effect coming into constant contact with carcinogens like benzene and vinyl chloride may be unwise think of it this way everyone's body is subjected to stress from both internal and external sources these stresses may take the form of cancer cells that are naturally produced by the body by some accounts as many as 12 cells a day exposure to heavy metals and other pathogens and so on the immune system is capable of handling a certain amount of stress simplistically speaking you could picture those stressors as balls your immune system is doubling ordinarily the jugular is skillful enough to keep those balls in the air that is the immune system catches and destroys those ten or twelve cells but the more balls in the air the more the body is based by all kinds of environmental toxins for example the greater the probability that it will drop the ball that a replicating cell will make a mistake it would be very hard to say which molecule or factor was the one that pushed a person's system over the edge but why not remove negative stressors especially since people don't want or need them some industrial chemicals produce a second effect more indicious than causing stress they weaken the immune system this is like tying one of the juggler's hand behind his back which makes it much harder for him to cast the cancer cells before they cause problem the deadliest chemicals both destroy the immune system and damage cells now you have one-handed juggler struggling to keep an increased number of balls in the air will he continue to perform with accuracy and grace why take the risk that he want why not look for opportunities to strengthen the immune system not challenge it we have focused on cancer here but these compounds may have other effects that science has yet to discover consider endocrine disruptors which were unheard of a decade ago but are now known to be among the most damaging chemical compounds for living organisms of the approximately 80 000 defined chemical substances and technical mixes that are produced and used by industries today bracket open each of which has five or more by-products bracket close only about 3000 so far have been studied for the effects on living system it may be tempting to try to turn back the clock yet the next industrial revolution will not be about returning to some idealized reindustrial state in which for example all textiles are made from natural fibers certainly at one point fibers were biodegradable and unwanted pieces could be tossed on the ground to decompose or even be safely burned as fuel but the natural materials to meet the needs of our current population do not and cannot exist if several billion people want the natural fibre blood scene dyed with natural dyes humanity will have to dedicate millions of acres to the cultivation of indigo and cotton plants just to satisfy the demand acres that are needed to produce food in addition even natural products are not necessarily healthy for humans and the environment indigo contains mutations and as typically grown in monocultural practices dipped in genetic diversity you want to change your genes not your genes substances created by nature can be extremely toxic they were not specifically designed by evolution for our use even something as benzene and necessary as clean drinking water can be little if you are submerged in it for more than a couple of minutes a strategy of tragedy or a strategy of change today's industrial infrastructure is designed to change economic growth it does so at the expense of other vital concerns particularly human and ecological health cultural and natural richness and even enjoyment and delight except for a few generally non-positive side effects most industrial methods and materials are unintentionally depleted yet just as industrialists engineers designers and developers of the past did not intend to bring about such devastating effects those who perpetuate this paradigm today cody do not intend to damage the world the waste pollution crude products and other negative effects that we have described are not the result of cooperation doing something morally wrong they are the consequence of outdated and unintelligent design nevertheless the damage is certain and severe modern industries are chipping away at some of the basic achievements that industrialization brought about food stocks for example have increased so that more children are fed but more children go to bed hungry as well but even if well-fed children are regularly exposed to substances that can lead to genetic mutations cancer asthma allergies and other complications from industrial contamination and waste then what has been achieved poor design on such a skeletal far beyond our own lifespan it perpetrates what we call intergenerational remote tyranny our tyranny over future generations through the effects of our action today at some point a manufacturer or designer decides we can't keep doing this we can't keep supporting and maintaining the system at some point they will decide that they would prefer to leave behind a positive design legacy but when is that point we say that point is today and negligence starts tomorrow once you understand the destruction taking place unless you do something to change it even if you never intended to cause such destruction you become involved in a strategy of tragedy you can continue to be engaged in that strategy of tragedy or you can design and implement a strategy of change perhaps you can imagine that a viable strategy for chains already exists aren't a number of green environmental and e-coefficient movements already afoot the next chapter takes a closer look at these movements and solutions they offer