We cannot ignore broadband as a key factor in maintaining environmental, social and economic progress.
Climate change is putting life as we know it in peril — hazardous air quality, record high temperatures, power shutoffs, parched farmland and communities once full of life wiped out by firestorms. The forecast on an international scale is simply mind-numbing. UNICEF recently reported that close to a billion — yes, one billion — children in 33 countries are most at risk of the impacts of the climate crisis. Another recent UN report, delivered by scientists, finds we are facing “a red code for humanity.”
On November 1, President Biden is scheduled to join world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland, underscoring the urgency to act. For two decades, we have championed Digital Equity as a pathway to opportunity and a catalyst to break down the wall of poverty. Broadband also is a “green strategy” that can help lessen impacts on the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and is a key linchpin, as is housing, for a triple bottom-line strategy to promote sustainability. The 3Es of triple bottom-line:
- Prosperous Economy
- Quality Environment
- Community Equity