Link: BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Do mobile phones cost the Earth?
Dylan Gwynn Jones, of University of Wales, Aberystwyth, oversaw some preliminary research into the environmental impacts from mobile phones.
“The findings were that the ecological footprint of creating a mobile phone may be small, but the cumulative effect is quite significant on a global scale,” he told BBC News.
As with all electronic equipment, mobile phones contain a range of substances that are harmful if the devices are not disposed of properly.
Plant a tree every time you buy a mobile phone. Good policy, I reckon.
That, and using Envirophone to recycle your old handsets.
Ewan, this article is a good illustration of what researchers will say to obtain grant money. Everything is bad for you if collected in large sums. For example, a mud puddle here and there will do you no harm, but put enough of them together and you have quicksand. This statement, “These substances have been linked to cancers and other disorders in humans, and can have a devastating impact if they are released into the environment.” is way over the top and very interesting, when you consider they come from the environment. A volcanic eruption, or an earthquake, compliments of Mother Nature, are my concept of devastating impacts. Sorry to bore you, jmho.
Re: your blog, awesome, great writing style, concise and easy to read. Terrific coverage of that Nokia world thing. TimB
I tend to agree with TimB, although that is not to say that research shouldn’t go on. Just it really shouldn’t be left to “researchers” to write up the stories for public consumption. Researchers are good at sitting at desks locked away in universities talking to each other, and should have handlers that are able to communicate findings to the outside world in clear ways that are not contradictory or written purely to “create” a story.
by the way, if you take all the worlds bloggers and people who read them and work out how much electricity is being used to power their PC’s whilst blogging,…..well it’s not very green is it! lets all turn off our PC’s now and go and stand in the street and say hello to the first person that walks by. strike up a conversation, you know, like we did before the PC.
😉
steve