Cell phones, coltan and gorillas February 6, 2008
Posted by Andreas in Environment, Sustainable Living.2 comments
I’m not a big cell phone user, but I’ve worked my way through several over the last few years. I can’t be bothered about having the latest, smallest and smartest model on the market, but most of them don’t seem to last more than a year or two. Clearly a case of built-in obsolescence.
Just chucking away my old cell phones has always been an issue for me (which is probably why most of them end up in the bottom of some drawer), especially after reading a bit about coltan, a mineral that is an important component in cell phones. Eighty per cent of the world’s coltan (short for columbite-tantalite) comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it has financed various groups fighting in regional civil wars and led to increasing deforestation in the Kahuzi Biega National Park, resulting in the decimation of the local gorilla population. “Within the Dem. Rep. of Congo as a whole, the U.N. Environment Program has reported that the number of eastern lowland gorillas in eight Dem. Rep. of Congo national parks has declined by 90% over the past 5 years, and only 3,000 now remain.”
Here’s an interesting video clip from the US, where cell phone recycling seems to be an option at least in some places:
Anyone have any good ideas about where to take old cell phones in South Africa?
Greenwashing the Minister’s house February 4, 2008
Posted by Andreas in Climate change, Environment, Global warming, Politics, South Africa, renewable energy.2 comments
I don’t know how well known this story is (I found it in Peak Poison, the 2007 groundWoerk report), but I think it certainly bears re-publishing here. It would be funny if it wasn’t quite so ironic!
On 13 February 2006, Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk invited journalists to celebrate the “greening” of his ministerial residence in Cape Town. The occasion was the first anniversary of the coming into force of the Kyoto Protocol, and the start of Eskom’s Recovery Plan during the Cape Town blackouts. The makeover, by Eskom energy efficiency experts, included the installation of energy efficient lighting, solar water heating, better insulation, and other measures that would also be applied at the residences of other ministers and government leaders.
[...] Overall, the changes at [Van Schalkwyk's] house would lead to “a 40% saving on the total energy consu,ed, with more than 80 litres of water, 31 kg of coal, and 56 kg of CO2 emissions saved every day. That’s more than 29,000 litres of water, 11,300 kg of coal, and 20,400 kg of CO2 in just one year – in just one home.”
On these figures, the profligate use of energy at the ministerial residence amounts to a climate crime even after making these savings:
Comparative CO2 emissions per year:
unelectrified low income home: 1.75t
electrified low income home: 2.3t
electrified high income home: 8.84t
Minister’s residence before savings: 51t
Minister’s residence after savings: 30,6t
Ouch!
