February 22, 2025
Dear editor;
The news is out about the new U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick. He was sworn in Friday, Feb. 21 by president Donald Trump. There are about 47,000 employees under the Secretary of Commerce. The gist of a PBS broadcast was there are looming “merger” or reorganization plans in the works to make the USPS not lose so much money. In my view, the reason for this is people are paying bills online, buying online subscriptions, and trying to go paperless. I think about the paper waste I create by not having a computer, but then I consider the greater problem of hard plastic waste from all those discarded computers, obsolete phones, and the rare earth metals needed in their manufacture.
My point of writing this follow-up to my piece from February 20 (letter perfect, Voice staff and thank you) is to repeat the problem of electricity usage of those supercomputers Stargate is promoting. Tom Skilling, U.S. Meteorologist, was on WGN News and he took a tour of the data center at Argonne, which is in Lemont, Ill.. He expressed his dismay over the noise and electricity usage. He said, “this just ROARS.” The “not in my backyard” usually does not pass muster for public benefit projects; but I still believe that supercomputers are not a “benefit.” Instead, they are a slippery slope to harm: Transhumanism. Look it up if you don’t know about it. Living next door to a data center will be the same as living next to a landfill. People have to move away and the rich get richer and poor get poorer.
I close by recommending two things: Vote “Yes” to the Kane County proposed sales tax. Reason is the funds are needed and the County has not wasted money. If the proposal fails, they might need to raise money by other means such as increased property tax. The sales tax proposed (and please see Mavis Bates’ Voice Letter from February 20) is only for “soft” consumer goods (not food). In the need to save our planet, it is a good thing to need to cut down on consumption in general. The second thing I recommend is to watch on Lakeshore PBS the program “Energy Switch.” It airs Tuesday at 4 p.m. Scott Tinker recently showed the offshore electrical generation turbines they have to have in New Jersey because they have run out of land.
Sincerely,
Mary Goetsch, Aurora