Intro

Hello listeners and welcome to **Fighting Failure, the podcast where we discuss solutions **to the climate crisis.

I’m your host for this episode, Oscar Archibald.

And I’m your co-host, Hisham Kanaan.

Today we’re going to be talking about tech, and its impact on the environment. We’re excited to discuss planned obsolescence, e-waste, and right to repair, amongst other fascinating topics.

As a little introduction, let me tell you first the story of the Lightbulb Conspiracy.

• When electric lightbulbs were first invented, some design could essentially run forever. They had a very strong filament and no moving parts, so it made sense that they could stand the test of time.
• Initially, business was good for all the lightbulb manufacturers, as they made tons of money from selling their high-quality light bulbs.
• However, once everybody had all the lightbulbs they needed, business started to slow down. This was good for the customers, who had excellent products, but it meant death for these capitalist businesses.
• So all the lightbulb manufacturers got together in a Cartel - something of a consortium, and strictly enforced rules to make sure their lightbulbs died after a certain number of hours - typically 1000. Members who violated these rules were punished.
• To this day, lightbulbs need to be replaced fairly often, and with the advent of LED lighting, manufacturers appear to be playing on consumers’ expectations for lightbulbs to “burn out” periodically, meaning that many LED lights have appallingly short lifespans — highly problematic since they are more expensive, more complicated to install, and harder to recycle.
• As proof that lightbulbs used to be able to last forever, in a fire station in California there is a light bulb that has been on continuously since 1901.

For a great overview of the Lightbulb Conspiracy, we’ve linked a video by Veritasium in the show notes.

This was the first example of planned obsolescence, but it certainly wasn’t the last…

From Generation, this is Fighting Failure, Episode 35. Let’s move on to the Problems…

Problems

• Things made shoddy deliberately
  • Accusations of Apple deliberately slowing down older devices.
  • Apple first-generation iPod was found to be designed for the battery to fail prematurely, thus necessitating purchase of a new iPod.
  • The lightbulbs we talked about at the start
  • Just about everything on Amazon