|
|
|
Discarded cellphones becoming a headache
The TREMENDOUS growth in mobile ownership over the past decade means the United Kingdom is deluged by old phones, each packed with lethal cocktails of mercury, nickel and other compounds.
Every hour, 1,700 mobiles are dumped by Britons buying better ones to take advantage of offers from the networks. This accumulation of dead ringers is an onslaught on the ecology: 15 million phones, each bursting with toxic chemicals, are thrown out to be buried in landfill sites or left in drawers and cupboards.
“We are creating a dangerous legacy, given the incredible rate of new devices dumped daily,” said Alison Conboy, one of the designers of an exhibition on the future of mobile phones — “Dead ringers?” — at the Science Museum last week.
These mounds of discarded Nokias, Samsungs and Motorolas are just one aspect of a major new ecological threat: electronic waste. Other sources include television sets and computers. “People keep electronic devices for shorter periods,” said Zeina Alhajj of Greenpeace.
“A decade ago, the average life of a PC was 10 years. Today it is three. But that is nothing compared to mobile phones: 18 months.”
Mobile phones could last for 10 years, with occasional battery replacements. However, consumers — particularly people aged under 30 — are constantly pressed to change. The early mobiles were simple but clunky. Current models act as cameras, diaries and contacts books as well as phones.
The new, third generation, devices allow owners to create their own video diaries, commentaries and documentaries in which they talk to the camera in their phone. People are using phones to create visual records of every aspect of their lives. All of this puts even more pressure on people to replace devices.
Every mobile is stuffed with different metals and plastics. There may only be tiny amounts in each, but given the millions dumped each year that represents a formidable ecological onslaught.
The American software giant saw 3 per cent wiped off its share price, in after hours trading, while shares in Dell, the world’s biggest PC maker and in nearest rival Hewlett-Packard have fallen by about 2 per cent.
In Asia, shares in chip makers Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor fell more than 3 per cent, while in Europe shares in Germany’s Infineon, the world’s sixth-biggest chip maker and number three memory chip producer, slipped 0.5 per cent.
One of the few winners among technology companies was Apple, which has its own operating system and saw its share price increase 1 per cent.
Microsoft announced recently that the launch of the new system to consumers was being pushed back from late this year to early 2007, saying PC manufacturers did not want to roll out the new system in the busy festive season.
“The industry requires greater lead time to deliver Windows Vista on new PCs during the holiday,” said Jim Allchin, co-president for the platforms and services division at Microsoft. “We must optimize for the industry, so we’ve decided to separate business and consumer availability.” — Dawn/The Guardian News Service
Meanwhile, Greenpeace International added another urgent action for saving life on earth: protecting international waters.
These announcements were made by the two global movements at the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP8), taking place in Brazil from March 20 to 31.
Land, water and other natural resources, including genetic diversity as well as the traditional knowledge of indigenous communities, “are priceless” and to pay for them with part of a company’s profits from patents “is privatisation” which Via Campesina opposes, bee-keeper Karen Pederson said.
Pederson is a president of the National Farmers Union in Canada, one of the Via Campesina member organisations.
The study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says that the so-called “species work” to protect threatened animals and plants in fact helps promote sustainable development in rural areas of countries such as Nepal, Uganda, India, Namibia, Costa Rica and China.
“Species are essential to human societies as cultural and religious symbols, commodities, food, fibre and transport,” said Susan Lieberman, who directs WWF’s global species programme. “Species also play a vital role in ensuring environmental services such as clean water and fertile soil,” she said.
The report’s authors argue that in many parts of the world, the dynamics that threaten wild species and natural heritage also contribute to poverty. For example, the Terai lowlands of Nepal, the floodplains of the Caprivi in Namibia, and the Afromontane forests of Uganda are all threatened by the loss of habitat and its riches, unsustainable depletion of the natural resource base, inequitable access to natural resources necessary for life, and a lack of adequate management mechanisms.
The 80-page report says that modern species conservation is therefore about conserving and managing a world for both wild species and people. — Dawn/IPS News Service
|
|
|
|
