If the Perseverance rover
now exploring Mars finds substantial deposits of water under the Martian
soil, perhaps it can send some to Taiwan. Taiwan—where so many of the
world's semiconductors are manufactured, but probably not the ones
guiding the Martian rover—is suffering its worst
drought in 67 years. The Taiwanese drought illustrates converging
risks that involve climate change, geographic concentration of a critical
industry, outsourcing, international tensions and supply chain fragility.
The drought has been very bad for those Taiwanese farmers affected by a
shutoff of irrigation water. So far the shutoff affects only
19,000 hectares (46,950 acres) or 6 percent of all irrigated land.
But now the
drought is threatening a mainstay of the Taiwanese economy,
semiconductor production. This matters to the rest of world because
the island nation of Taiwan is home to more
than 20 percent of the world's semiconductor manufacturing capacity,
the largest percentage located in any one country.
Semiconductors, the basis of practically all communications and computing
infrastructure, require
large amounts of water for their manufacture. The water is
ultra-purified and used to clean the chips during assembly. Even the
tiniest bit of dust or other foreign matter can destroy chip performance.
It's difficult to find recent figures on exactly how much water is used.
One source claims that approximately 2,200
gallons of water are used to manufacture a 30-centimeter (12-inch)
silicon wafer. That figure might very well be less today as
manufacturers try to recycle some of their water.
But still, those manufacturers continue to use a lot of water. Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Taiwan's industry leader and the
second largest manufacturer of semiconductors in the world, consumes
156,000 tons of water PER DAY, according
to Bloomberg. In the northern region of the country, the company
accounts for more than 10 percent of the water usage.
The country of Taiwan and its people have become very adept at making
semiconductors. And, they have been able to produce high-quality chips at
competitive prices. It's no wonder that many companies at the center of
the tech and computer revolution have outsourced this task to Taiwan.
Few people involved in the decision imagined a day when there might not
be enough water in Taiwan to support such manufacturing. After all, Taiwan
is an island nation in the Western Pacific intersecting the Tropic of
Cancer and it averages 100 inches of rain per year. Some of that rain comes from
regularly occurring typhoons that hit the island more than three times a
year on average.
But not a single typhoon landed in Taiwan in 2020. One Taiwanese climate
scientist explained to
Reuters that "high-pressure zones merging in the upper atmosphere
over the Pacific and Southeast Asia" are "'building a protective wall
around Taiwan' and driving typhoons north towards Japan and South Korea." This development is likely a result of climate change which is expected to
cut in half the number of yearly typhoons in Taiwan's region of the
Pacific by the end of the century.
All of this would be less concerning to those around the world were it
not for Taiwan's central role in providing a key ingredient for the
infrastructure of the modern information age .
That concern is growing for other reasons as well. Tensions
between Taiwan and China have resurfaced the ever-simmering issue of
China's claim that Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China.
Chinese military jets recently flew through areas monitored by Taiwan's
air defenses. The Chinese government released a statement saying that any
declaration by Taiwan that it is an independent state would mean war.
There have been such threats before. But events
unfolding in Hong Kong provide a more ominous backdrop to the latest
spat between Taiwan and China.
Yet another development has also highlighted the fragility of current
arrangements. A
sudden shortage of computer chips for automotive production has
forced some assembly lines to shut down. Could other industries be next?
The shortage points up the vulnerability of so-called just-in-time
manufacturing, in which components needed for assembly are delivered just
in time for their use. Delivery trucks carrying parts essentially become rolling
warehouses for manufacturers. It's a system that works until it doesn't.
As I explained in a
recent piece:
Ostensibly, the reason for this hiccup is that automakers
curtailed production dramatically at the beginning of the pandemic. Chip
producers then found a blistering market for their chips in computers,
televisions and other devices that now homebound workers were ordering in
unprecedented quantities. Auto sales have rebounded far sooner than
expected, but the chip producers have pledged their production to other
industries.
Two
automakers who stockpiled the chips just in case now
have the upper hand.
Semiconductors are not the only example of difficulties arising from the
global system we have created. The
supply of rare earths, a group of key metals essential to
electronics and renewable energy, now come predominately from China which
has threatened to reduce its exports in retaliation for hostile
U.S. trade and military actions.
Which brings me back to the Perseverance rover on Mars. The rover is
built for self-sufficiency and resilience. It has to be. There are no
humans who can make a service call to Mars to fix it if something goes
wrong. And, it
turns out that the semiconductors that make up its brain come in the
form of a PowerPC processor.
Longtime Apple computer users will be scratching their heads wondering why a
processor used in a 1998 Apple computer would be controlling the latest
Mars rover. NASA chose this processor on purpose because it is so reliable
and reliability is what must come first on such missions.
Perhaps the managers of today's global logistics system still have time to prove that
there is intelligent life on Earth by learning something from the
Perseverance rover about how we might do things better here on
our planet.
|
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kurt Cobb is a freelance writer and communications consultant who writes frequently about energy and environment. His work has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Resilience, Common Dreams, Naked Capitalism, Le Monde Diplomatique, Oilprice.com, OilVoice, TalkMarkets, Investing.com, Business Insider, and many other places. He
is the author of an oil-themed novel entitled Prelude and has a widely followed blog called Resource Insights. He is currently a fellow of the Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions. He can be contacted at kurtcobb2001@yahoo.com.
|
![[groups_small]](groups_small.gif)
