Adventures in the Anthropocene

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Gaia Vince. Adventures in the Anthropocene

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ADVENTURES IN THE ANTHROPOCENE

Maps

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Mobile phones aren’t just bringing access to money, though. A Nepali peasant with a smartphone on Google, now has more access to information than the president of the United States did fifteen years ago.3 In the Philippines most communications between the government and citizens take place by SMS texting. In Malaysia, flood warnings are sent by text message, and across the world, from quake-struck Haiti to the famines of East Africa, evacuations and relief for natural disasters are coordinated by SMS. In India, tribal groups are using mobile phones for ‘citizen journalism’, spreading information and giving voice to disenfranchised groups.

During the Arab Spring of 2011, citizens organised themselves to fight oppressive regimes using mobile phones, even bypassing government Internet and network clampdowns by accessing social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook through apps and proxy servers. Across Africa, voting in national elections with a smartphone can cut election fraud by 60%.4 In Afghanistan, the police receive their government salaries through mobile phone banking because it cuts down on fraud. Into the Anthropocene, mobile phones could even start to democratise markets. Enterprising individuals using crowd-funding tools like Kickstarter have a way to access markets that have been the exclusive domain of big corporations since the days of the East India Company.

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