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4.2 billion people still don't have Internet access, and here's what might happen if they did
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The United Nations Broadband Commission released findings indicating 4.2 billion people still don't have Internet access. According to Mic, growth in access is also declining. - photo by Payton Davis
It turns out the world isn't as connected as most might have thought: 57 percent of people or 4.2 billion lack Internet access, according to findings by the United Nations Broadband Commission.

And according to The Atlantic, the UN's stats uncover other interesting tidbits.

Of the world's 7,100 languages, just five percent are represented on the Internet, and The Atlantic's article indicated 90 percent of people in the world's poorest 48 countries lack access.

However, what's the largest takeaway?

The UN's goal to end 2015 with 60 percent of the world online isn't going to happen, according to Mic.

"Instead, they believe we'll be at 43.4% by the end of the year," Mic's piece read. "That's 2.8% in growth since 2014, with that growth getting slower. Now they believe the world won't hit that 60% mark until 2021 at the very earliest."

According to Mic, stalled growth in Internet access could prevent difference-makers in poor countries from achieving all they hope to: having Internet-connected phones that detect malaria and are used as fetal care monitors, textbooks and calculators.

An even smaller portion of women in developing countries utilize the Internet, and that stunts their potential to help lift communities out of poverty, a Project Concern International report stated.

If able to use the technology tools they need, 600 million women and girls could contribute to boosting the GDP "across 144 developing countries by up to $18 billion," PCI reported.

Both prosperity and knowledge are at stake.

"One hundred eighty million women and girls would be able to generate more income, and nearly 500 million would improve their education level," according to PCI.

The UN's report seems grim, but Jon Fingas of Engadget pointed out a few positives. Fortunately, mobile data subscriptions should continue to increase, and by 2021, greater Internet access can complement that.

"That could prove to be particularly vital, since many of those who are still offline live in rural areas where telecoms can't (or simply won't) run landlines," Fingas wrote. "While near-ubiquitous Internet is likely a distant prospect at best, it may not take long before high-speed data is the rule, rather than the exception."

CNBC reported mobile cellular subscriptions exceeded 7 billion this year but like Internet access have "slowed sharply."

The UN's report also informed readers of the importance of Internet "landing" in developing countries, showing how that led to economic promise in the likes of China and Brazil, Mic's article read.

"According to the report, countries where the Internet and mobile phones have taken hold places like China, India and Brazil market penetration has skyrocketed in just a few years," the piece stated. "Others are left out entirely, creating a stark contrast between vividly networked countries and those still left out of the fruits of the Information Era."

According to The Atlantic, 15 percent of Americans stated they don't use the Internet in a June study, compared with 48 percent who were asked the same question in 2000.
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Book review: Author digs into mining's complicated past and present in 'River of Lost Souls'
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Jonathan Thompson will speak about his book "River of Lost Souls" at the King's English Bookshop on Tuesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. - photo by Amanda Olson
"RIVER OF LOST SOULS: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Spill," by Jonathan Thompson, Torrey House Press, 275 pages (nf)

Plenty has been written about the very small world of a mining town and the very broad reach of a beleaguered industry. From Loretta Lynns iconic song "Coal Miners Daughter," to the 2010 nail-biting coverage of 33 trapped Chilean miners, to the hit Broadway musicals "Paint Your Wagon" and "Billy Elliot," mining is a global story, and its one of heartbreak, hard work and hard times.

Jonathan Thompsons "River of Lost Souls" examines the many facets of risk involved in taking resources from below the earths surface. An environmental journalist, Thompson has reported on southwest Colorado for over 20 years. This book is special, however, because the Four Corners area of Colorado is his current and ancestral home. Thompson is writing about minings ecological, social, financial and political impact on his land, his landscape, his water, his people. That makes "River of Lost Souls" more than a regular reporting job.

Thompson begins with the Gold King Mine wastewater disaster of 2015, which the EPA caused while attempting to drain water near the mines entrance. The spill sent 3 million gallons of waste and tailings into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River and part of the San Juan River watershed which drains into the Colorado, affecting the Utah, Colorado and New Mexico parts of that watershed as well as the Navajo Nation.

From there, Thompson jumps into far stretches of time to 1765, when a Spanish explorer named the Animas River; to 10,000 years earlier, when Paleo-Indians roamed the rivers valley; to the meridian of time, when the ancestors of the Zuni, Hopi and Rio Grande Pueblo people inhabited the land for 500 years; to the mid-1800s and the Swedes who came to Silverton, Colorado, to mine.

Its a grand scope, but telling any story of landscape is telling a very grand story.

It also makes a complex story difficult to follow. Thompsons time warps are important, but they are jarring. His time jumps need clear dates, and Thompson doesnt always make them available. A map would also be useful. Thompsons writing is good, but his sentences can be dense and require readers to do their own mining for the riches the writing embeds. The work is worthwhile, however, as there are many moving parts in any story about mines land, culture, policy, history, money, inevitable disaster and Thompson works to examine all of them.

"River of Lost Souls" is a thoughtful read, but not a quick one. Because Thompsons writings come from 20 years of his newspaper reports, the overall feeling can be disjointed and sparse, which is distracting if one is expecting to follow a tenable thread. This is not a typical narrative with a cast of characters and a traditional story arc. Readers should approach this text as the investigation it is: puzzle pieces of a larger-than-life story that is eons old. If you are the kind of reader who wants it laid out cleanly, this is not that book. But, to Thompsons point, nothing is clean about mining that has never been the case.

Thompsons best writing is in his descriptions of people and places. His telling of how he came to Silverton is familiar and engaging. If readers approach the book with care and attention, they will be rewarded with savoring these descriptive passages when they happen.
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