Who doesn't have a cell phone? And for that matter, who doesn't have about ten old ones lying around? I personally could make jewelry out of the SIM cards that I've amassed in just the past few years...
Our cellular usage is exceeding our capacity for provisions....
We are mining locations and basically raping civilizations for whatever they have available.
The amount of man- power it takes just to find the copper for the wires to deliver the message is obscene. The rare minerals that are essential to the inner workings of these beasts is staggeringly offensive.
I doubt if anyone who lifts a phone to their ear ever thinks about how it ever got to there.
Even recently, a whole body of video games has been un-earthed just to access the "wasted" materials within. But there will be a time, and that time is coming soon, where we will all be digging through"garbage" to find what we need.
On a local scale, we could consider consolidating what we have, to provide materials for other things.
People are murdered and massacred to find these materials and we're just throwing them away.
Our "waste management" system is lackluster at best. We desperately need to contain what what we have and re-utilize what's available to us.
In all, the very things that are bringing us all together are going to be the death of us all.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
The Almighty Mobile Phone
I chose to write about something we are all familiar with, but perhaps do not consider the environmental ramifications of, everyday.
Most people these days have one on them at all times. In fact, there is often a sense of panic when we can not find it. Or alternatively, if we accidentally leave home without it, there is a feeling that something is missing all day.
God FORBID we should run out of power and not be close to a charger and an outlet for any more than a few hours at most!
I speak of course of the almighty cell phone. I spent the first 28 years of my life without one (somehow!) but now, like the rest of the modern world, am very much used to having it around.
How often do we consider though, the complexity of these devices and the amount of labor and materials that go into manufacturing them?
They say that the cell phones we use today are over 100 times more powerful than the computer which got our astronauts to the moon and back in 1969. That computer being not much more than a modern calculator.
But how are they made?
The primary material is plastic, which is derived from crude oil.
These are generally coated with a flame retardant chemical.
The second largest material is the liquid crystal display, which is thin layers of glass sandwiching liquid crystals and usually a bit of mercury.
Thirdly, the phones power source, the battery, often contains any combination of the elements: nickel, lithium, cobalt, cadmium, zinc and/or copper.
The phones' charger also contains copper wires in plastic casings. Some may even include traces of gold or cadmium.
There are a whole slew of "minor" ingredients, which are difficult to attain but are essential for the functionality of the phone. (i.e. the microprocessors and microchips)
All of these "ingredients", once collected, have to be shipped to facilities to be assembled, then packaged and shipped all over the world.
When you consider the effort that goes into it, it is remarkable that cell phones are so affordable.
Most people these days have one on them at all times. In fact, there is often a sense of panic when we can not find it. Or alternatively, if we accidentally leave home without it, there is a feeling that something is missing all day.
God FORBID we should run out of power and not be close to a charger and an outlet for any more than a few hours at most!
I speak of course of the almighty cell phone. I spent the first 28 years of my life without one (somehow!) but now, like the rest of the modern world, am very much used to having it around.
How often do we consider though, the complexity of these devices and the amount of labor and materials that go into manufacturing them?
They say that the cell phones we use today are over 100 times more powerful than the computer which got our astronauts to the moon and back in 1969. That computer being not much more than a modern calculator.
But how are they made?
The primary material is plastic, which is derived from crude oil.
These are generally coated with a flame retardant chemical.
The second largest material is the liquid crystal display, which is thin layers of glass sandwiching liquid crystals and usually a bit of mercury.
Thirdly, the phones power source, the battery, often contains any combination of the elements: nickel, lithium, cobalt, cadmium, zinc and/or copper.
The phones' charger also contains copper wires in plastic casings. Some may even include traces of gold or cadmium.
There are a whole slew of "minor" ingredients, which are difficult to attain but are essential for the functionality of the phone. (i.e. the microprocessors and microchips)
All of these "ingredients", once collected, have to be shipped to facilities to be assembled, then packaged and shipped all over the world.
When you consider the effort that goes into it, it is remarkable that cell phones are so affordable.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Plastic peril
I'd always known that plastic bags were a problem, but this video was a real eye-opener.
One of the things that really struck me was the issue they were having in Africa with the mosquito breeding grounds, caused by the plastic bag waste. The diseases carried by these mosquitoes kill hundreds of thousands of people annually, so eliminating this source could minimize the number of deaths.
A particular way one person was able to make a difference, was the lady in England who filmed a documentary for the BBC about plastic bags in the ocean near Hawaii. She was able to by-pass all the political red-tape by going straight to the shop-keepers. It is an impressive feat, to change the way a whole town functions by taking the argument directly to the people. I have to admire the clever simplicity of it.
I believe the first step is to stop manufacturing plastic bags altogether. Granted, there's no actual way to shut down businesses that make them, currently. And it's difficult to tell someone who's turning a profit that they "ought to stop". It seems that we've always gone a rather backwards way about conservation. The preemptive option is too late. We can't make a change from the "top-down" as it were, but in the same way that that woman went about changing her town in England, we as individuals can make a difference by not using plastic bags. If there's no longer a demand for them, they won't be made. It absolutely has to start from the ground and go up. Not even locally, but individually.
As for the recyclability of these lightweight death-traps, I do not believe the bag manufacturer for one second. Plastic bags are not "misunderstood". He is running a business. Of course he's going to defend his profits by saying whatever he has to. His argument was shamefully transparent and sadly typical of a corporate big-wig.
A particular comment was made by a woman in the video that resonated with me, personally. She said that by using the plastic bag provided by the store, she felt she was less suspicious. I too have been under scrutiny in the past for carrying my own bags. I've always carried a bag or a backpack when shopping, because I prefer not to use something once and then discard it, whatever it is. And from the time I began shopping for myself as a teenager and even still now, to this day, (I'm 36) I am given strange looks when I fill my bag at the grocery store. Once, I even was stopped as I was exiting a store so that my bag could be searched. Obviously I had a receipt for everything, but it was mortifying to be accused like that. I walk everywhere or take the bus, so having a bag with me is not only convenient, but necessary, so I wish it was more socially acceptable to be "green".
One of the things that really struck me was the issue they were having in Africa with the mosquito breeding grounds, caused by the plastic bag waste. The diseases carried by these mosquitoes kill hundreds of thousands of people annually, so eliminating this source could minimize the number of deaths.
A particular way one person was able to make a difference, was the lady in England who filmed a documentary for the BBC about plastic bags in the ocean near Hawaii. She was able to by-pass all the political red-tape by going straight to the shop-keepers. It is an impressive feat, to change the way a whole town functions by taking the argument directly to the people. I have to admire the clever simplicity of it.
I believe the first step is to stop manufacturing plastic bags altogether. Granted, there's no actual way to shut down businesses that make them, currently. And it's difficult to tell someone who's turning a profit that they "ought to stop". It seems that we've always gone a rather backwards way about conservation. The preemptive option is too late. We can't make a change from the "top-down" as it were, but in the same way that that woman went about changing her town in England, we as individuals can make a difference by not using plastic bags. If there's no longer a demand for them, they won't be made. It absolutely has to start from the ground and go up. Not even locally, but individually.
As for the recyclability of these lightweight death-traps, I do not believe the bag manufacturer for one second. Plastic bags are not "misunderstood". He is running a business. Of course he's going to defend his profits by saying whatever he has to. His argument was shamefully transparent and sadly typical of a corporate big-wig.
A particular comment was made by a woman in the video that resonated with me, personally. She said that by using the plastic bag provided by the store, she felt she was less suspicious. I too have been under scrutiny in the past for carrying my own bags. I've always carried a bag or a backpack when shopping, because I prefer not to use something once and then discard it, whatever it is. And from the time I began shopping for myself as a teenager and even still now, to this day, (I'm 36) I am given strange looks when I fill my bag at the grocery store. Once, I even was stopped as I was exiting a store so that my bag could be searched. Obviously I had a receipt for everything, but it was mortifying to be accused like that. I walk everywhere or take the bus, so having a bag with me is not only convenient, but necessary, so I wish it was more socially acceptable to be "green".
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