Information superhighway: an environmental menace.

The information superhighway poses a dangerous threat to the environment, according to James H. Snyder, a Northwestern University professor specializing in the impacts of new technology. "Unbeknownst to the advocates of telecommuting, the coming information superhighway portends an environmental disaster of the first magnitude," he told the World Future Society.

Increased telecommuting, he indicated, may allow a massive movement of people to what currently are rural areas. The existing infrastructure there may not be able to handle such a sudden and large influx of new residents, and the over-all ecological impacts that such a migration would bring have not even begun to be examined.

"If all Americans succeed in getting their dream house with several acres of land, the forests and open lands across the entire continental United States will be destroyed," he warned. Rather than...