Anand Giridharadas in the NYT:
Not for the first time, America and much of the world are moving in different ways. America’s innovators, building for an ever-expanding bandwidth network, are spiraling toward fancier, costlier, more network-hungry and status-giving devices; meanwhile, their counterparts in developing nations are innovating to find ever more uses for cheap, basic cellphones.
Like gargantuan automobiles, like giant-size helpings, like suburban sprawl, like retail packaging. It’s the same story again. Innovation without efficiency. Comfort without conscience.
Another generation, the same folks, same finger-pointing. You developed by being wasteful, why shouldn’t we? Either over water (for manufacturing) or minerals (for batteries) or e-waste disposal or suchlike.