Gadgets and my slice of the pie

The planet has limited resources. A lot of people need and want those resources. So, what’s my fair share? How big a slice of the pie can I take without it meaning that someone else has to suffer? I want happiness for myself and my family, but the big question underlying the No Impact Man project is whether you can achieve that without causing too much suffering for others.

My last post was about the millions of still-working cell phones that will poison the planet as people toss them in landfills and incinerators in favor of their new iPhones (you can also read a long article about e-waste here). Don’t get me wrong. I want an iPhone (and I could get one, according to No Impact rules, if I could find one second hand). But the question, when buying iPhones or anything else, is how do my actions as a consumer affect the rest of the world? When am I taking more than my fair share? When am I causing suffering? In other words, just because I want to get an iPhone, should I?

For me, during the No Impact project, with its various rules, there is no real conundrum. I just do as the rules tell me. I probably couldn’t get a used iPhone anyway, and I can’t buy new. Later, though, when the project is over, I’ll be back to the war between my desires and my conscience. That’s why I’m thinking so much about the iPhone—because I both want one and feel I shouldn’t get one.

Buying gadgets—iPhones, TVs, computers—has a huge impact on the planet and on other people. To wit—and let me warn you that this is the part in the horror movie where you need to close your eyes—four million people have died in a war that is, at least in part, a struggle to control the world’s supplies of an essential ingredient in most of our electronics, a metal called coltan, 80 percent of which lie beneath the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In his article entitled “A journey into the most savage war in the world,” published in the Independent on June 5, 2006, Johann Hari wrote that the war in the Congo is:

“…the story of a trail of blood that leads directly to you: to your remote control, to your mobile phone, to your laptop and to your diamond necklace…

“This war has been waved aside as an internal African implosion. In reality it is a battle for coltan and diamonds and cassiterite and gold, destined for sale in London and New York and Paris. It is a battle for the metals that make our technological society vibrate and ring and bling, and it has already claimed four million lives in five years and broken a population the size of Britain’s. No, this is not only a story about them. This – the tale of a short journey into the long Congolese war we in the West have fostered, fuelled and funded – is a story about you.”

Am I saying I will never buy another electronic device? No. But I am saying I want to be conscience of the effects of my consumption, and that it should probably not be particularly conspicuous. Given that the planet does have limited resources and my use of them does have the potential to contribute to unhappiness, I’m back where I started: what is my fair share?

Comments

[Christa]

Hello,

I have nominated you for a 'Bloggers for Positive Global Change' award.

Check out my post today for the details.

Cheers,

Christa

[Darcy]

Not even half way through the article about the Congo, and I literally have to turn off the computer because I think I am going to throw up or faint or both.

[kelley]

if we want people to know about this, looks like bloggers and grassroots have to share the story. i can't imagine most media conglomerates are particularly interested in encouraging people to buy less.

[tim]

Why did you have to put up a picture of pecan pie? It is my favorite...

[jewishfarmer]

Colin, this was one of your best. Thank you for making the connection between the Congo and e-waste more mainstream.

Excellent.

Sharon

[Ellen]

I liked this post but I had to wonder about the "second hand" iPhone and how it falls into the rules. If you buy an iPhone right now is it really second hand or used or not new since they just came out? It is not like someone used it and got good use out of it and then you got it. So my question is when is would it really be "second hand"? I am a big fan of no impact so please don't take this the wrong way. just putting it out there...

[Scott]

When Columbus sailed to our shores he found an unspoiled land full of a people that lived in harmony with it. There were no shopping malls, freeways, power lines or prisons. But these he felt were a "savage" people that must be "civilized" and they stood in the way of his pursuit of new resources for the king. So he claimed the land for the king with an intent to return and "civilize" it and capture its resources.

In 1492 Columbus also discovered Haiti. The native population when he arrived is estimated to have been at least one million and some estimates run as high as three million. In Columbus own words "I found very many islands filled with people without number, and all of them I have taken possession for their Highnesses...As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information on whatever there is in these parts"

He hauled off much gold for the kingdom, and left a delegation to build a fort built from the remnants of the sunken Santa Maria with the intent to "control" the land. By 1596 there were only 125 individuals remaining of the native population. The rest died by sword, famine and disease.

We assume these stories are ancient history, and in the case of Columbus, who is purported to have "discovered America" we just bury it under the rug and declare a national holiday. We are now a modern civilized people who seek peace for the world...through technology. But our "civilization" is still in pursuit of conquest. We just mask it through wars of ideology which are really wars of conquest and annihilation. The goal of these wars...more comfort for the people of the kingdom through the assumption of more resources.

As I look around my office I see a router, a laser printer, a scanner, two speakers, an LCD monitor, a tungsten lamp, a telephone, a tape recorder, computer, a laptop computer, a TV, a VCR, a DVD, a stereo, a label maker...need I go on? These make life very convenient and, I guess, bring me some happiness; maybe just a little; but these did not spring from the earth as fruit of any plant. They were manufactured from oil and ores from all over the planet. Retrieved through force many times so I, as part of the "kingdom" can enjoy them.

To be fair, I acquired much of this stuff long before I began to wake up to the realities. Indeed, if it were not for my computer, I could not be participating in this forum. I am still rethinking the logic of that and am not sure where my future path will take me when these things wear out. Will I replace them? I really don't know.

I learned years ago that most diamonds sold had a price tag of blood attached to them. I vowed not to buy diamonds. When I learned about fair trade bananas I discovered that many workers died or became ill from being sprayed with pesticides and that the banana farmers did not receive adequate compensation from their bananas to even live. I now buy organic fair trade bananas. The more I learn, the less I want to buy.

We can march, we can protest, we can decry needless wars. Shoot we can even build websites and have public forums to sicken ourselves with the facts then legislate against that which disgusts us. But if the wars are fought and people die simply to bring more goods for our kingdom so we can sustain our convenient and comfortable lives are we not then really an accomplice if we buy?

I am a guilty man.

[P~]

I had never heard of coltan before. I'll need to look into it. It makes me reflect on the idea of helping the environment through new better technology. What's going to happen one day when our ability to produce this technology has become so dependant on some chemical or mineral that is controlled by a small number of countries and we don't have any influence over there? Same thing as is happening right now with oil thank you very much. I guess it all ends up haveing more to do with what and how much we consume, not how that stuff operates. There are a lot of great technologies out there, but personal responsibility and reduction are the only sure way to conserve and preserve.
Good read Colin.
P~

[pft]

Dear Colin,

Thanks for another brilliant post. To get the full visual impact of modern life on the planet, I recommend Jennifer Beichwal's film MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES about Edward Burtynsky's photographs. (New Yorkers can see it now at Film Forum.)Burtynsky's work is all about SCALE, the huge e-dumps in China, the obsolete barges in India, the piles of coal, oil fields, endless highways, and landfills our lifestyle demands. It's a beautiful film and may somewhat dampen ones desire for an I-phone or the gadget du jour.

[Monika Antonelli]

Hi. I was wondering if you would post your thoughts on acquiring second hand items from thrift stores, Craig's list, freecycle, etc. I get many of the things I use like clothes, dishes, books from local thrift stores. I also take things I no longer need back to the same thrift stores.

Thanks,
Monika

[Bill F]

Thought provoking as is so much of the NIM project. I broke my addiction to gadgets by a prepurchase self examination of just how much pleasure the proposed purchase would bring. I get myself to think past the first, out of the box, gee whiz novelty and consider a month and a year down the road. "Will my life really be markedly better?" Also pragmatically, "Will my life be better relative to the $xxx spent and what else it could do?" These days, as is pointed out here, I must also add, "Is it worth the impact on the world?"

Honestly, the answer was usually "No" even just asking the first two questions. I don't often make it to the third, more complex question.

[donthewanderer]

If we create this market for second hand products, through sites like e-bay and craigslist, are we really doing anything to lessen our consumption. I think it's just a rationalization to make ourselves feel better for buying the things we know we could probably do without.
I agree with Bill F on his method for making purchases. Most of the time whatever it is that I want initially, I don't really want down the road, and I end up either giving it away to a family member or friend, or it ends up on e-bay or craigslist.
This has helped me greatly with impulse shopping, as well as shopping as a cure for boredom.

[Samara]

Hi Colin,

I've actually never owned a brand-new cel phone until recently (it was a gift); I'd always acquired hand-me-down models from family members who'd received new phones with their plans, etc. Now my phone is dead (accidental drowning) and despite pressure to get a new phone, I'm asking around for another would-be discard. I don't forsee ever needing a new phone or gadget again, really- even the one time I had a PDA it was a hand-me-down. Same for my car, TV, stereo et al.

One thing that I'm wondering, though, is how far does one go being no-impact-oriented before the solution is "kill self/others to reduce impact." It may seem absurd to even ask that question, but as a Christian, I have to ask where the balance lies for someone who believes in the inherent value of life/Creation yet hasn't really posited a basis for that belief. Would you post on this sometime?

I'm loving this blog and have been mentioning it to everyone I know- not just for your content, but the links list as well.

[Val]

We have got to question our consumption - there is no positive way to spin war, poison, and extinction. I appreciate when you question the status quo and ask bascially if we really want to have our cake and eat it too - if we want to keep an economic and value system that accepts the endless consumption of the planet. The questions and concerns just keep getting bigger and deeper. Thank you for posting them.

[Leslie]

Don't you get a little angry when you find out about things like this? It is lying. It is the omission of truth when consumers are not made aware, up front, of the damages that their purchases cause.

[Bubba]

Consumerism is about wants versus needs. I need food – I want an i-phone. Two different things.

My wife and I (we live in Canada) just returned from a trip to a Midwest state (land of the McMansion, Mall, freeway, Applebee’s). Yes there are nice parts of the Midwest – just not where we visited. Of course - “when in Rome” – we went to a Mall. We bought a Bose dock speaker set for my I-pod. Sounds great – but we didn’t need it.

When we sat down at home, we looked around our house – (we were reflecting on the Mall and retail consumer culture of North America - yes Canada loves its malls) and realized that there is absolutely NOTHING else that we actually need. NOTHING. Most of what we already have we don’t need. We have been guilty as charged of consumerism.

The recent purchase not withstanding, we have made a conscious effort to gradually change our lives – buy less, drive less, fly less, buy local, buy organic, eat local. We recycle and compost almost everything. We donate to charity. We are adopting a child.

As I understand it (I hope these figures are right)North Americans represent 5% of the world’s population but use 30% of natural resources. This is immoral. Plain and simple. Also unsustainable.

We need a dramatic paradigm shift away from a “grow the economy” consumer culture to a sustainable, equitable system. This is not right wing vs liberal, this is morality and sustainability. We have 4o years of oil left.

I hope my ipod lasts 40 years.

BUBBA

[Mandy]

I feel so stupid and guilty for not knowing about the Congo and coltan. I want to get it out of my house RIGHT NOW but of course, I can't-- my husband is a student and we have to have a computer (but why 2?) and we use cells instead of land lines so we can talk to our families, who are far away. I bought the first TV I've ever owned just last year, and now I wish I hadn't. We don't need it at all.

[Rebecca]

I believe that everyones piece of the "pie" will get smaller as our resources that make our gadgets will also get smaller and then those IPods, Iphones, etc. will be no more. We all need to be more conscious and cautious of what we consume and the effects that it has not only on the environment but also on the world. The movie "Blood Diamond" is a great illustration of this.

[Darcy]

I muscled through and finished reading the article, and when I got to the end and found it was originally published a year ago, I nearly cried. If only I'd known. I feel guilty for not having educated myself sooner. We changed cell phone providers in the last year and they wouldn't let us continue to use our old phones so we "had to" get new ones. Well, that's the end of that. If this cell phone dies or can't be moved to the next provider, it's the end of cell phones for me.

I appreciate your making me aware of this horrible price others have paid so that I can let someone know when I'll arrive, or get directions when I'm lost without getting out of my car. I still feel ill from the whole idea of it. I think we need another post about how to pull oneself out of the pit of despair that knowing about this horrible situation can cause.

[Beth Terry]

I have discovered recently that taking on a really interesting project and immersing oneself in it (unless the project is Shopping Mall Spending Spree) creates less of a desire to buy things. Since I started my plastic-reduction project and blog, fakeplasticfish.com, I have enjoyed life a lot more and spent far less than I had been. Exercising my mind instead of my credit card has been a blast! Focusing on what I can do with what I already have, rather than what I need, has helped me be way more creative and actually feel positive about life.

Your article The Truth About Happiness is right-on. Especially for me the part about "connecting to something larger than yourself so you have a sense of meaning." When we put our hearts fully into something we care about, we find we may not care about the next iPhone or iPod or iWhatever.

That said, I do realize that all my blogging is done with a computer, using technology created with the resources that you discussed in this article. I'm not going to upgrade this computer any time soon (that would also entail buying more plastic, which I'm committed to drastically reduce) and when it dies, I'll think long and hard about how, or even whether, to replace it. I have a friend who only uses a computer at work and doesn't have one at home. Can you imagine??? And she's doing just fine!

[Rolf Johansson]

I have to say that I'm finally getting the concept of consumption and its effects on the rest of the world. It's something that I have been thinking about (and slowly trying to do something about personally) a lot recently... largely due to this blog.

Thank you. I hope that you're having the same 'impact' on others as you are on me.

[Karen]

I'm amazed that I've never heard of coltan, and obviously had no idea of its history before it showed up in my computer, cell phone, etc. Makes me wonder how many other "trace" materials there are in my electronics and how they got there.
Having read the article, I will certainly think twice about my consumer choices and the effect they have on others. Thinking back on the purchases I've made over the past several months, I realize that, with the exception of food (and I'm including in that food for my cats because I've made a commitment to their lives as well), none of them were truly, capital N, Necessary. Even the so-called "ethical purchases" I've made have been for things that I wanted rather than needed. How many of those purchases contributed to the poverty, enslavement, or death of another human being?

[Brian M]

"How many of those purchases contributed to the poverty, enslavement, or death of another human being?"
ALL OF THEM! A better question is how directly or indirectly?
In an interconnected economy, every price is effected by every other price, that's what makes it a system. But some contributions are quick and some are tangential. The cost of diamonds is very closely linked to Africa's suffering. The cost of a Sony Playstation is linked to all kinds of things, including the economy of Japan, overall technological development, the price of oil, and yup to some extent the cost of coltan and thus the suffering in the Congo. Chocolate links quickly with West African slavery. Corn syrup links with global poverty but more indirectly. But since there is a lot more corn and we probably eat more corn products than chocolate the total effect may well be bigger. Heck, the taxes you pay on a purchase have links to many problems. The money you pay your kid's piano teacher helps her afford to buy a chocolate bar, and thus helps fund west African slavery. Our life and economy is a series of moral trade-offs in which nothing is pure, but somethings are purer than others. It's quite dizzying when you first start thinking about it hard, so much of our life works the way it does because things are too cheap for us, because someone less powerful is paying the real cost (and big time) for us. Sometimes that someone lives in another part of the world, and sometimes they live in our own future.
-Brian M.

[Garnet]

Hello Colin,

I thought your posting was lacking in "the other side" of the story.

So I choose to play Devils advocate.

First the Congo has 80% of the world supply of Coltan. That does NOT mean we get 80% of our Coltan from the Congo. The world’s largest manufacturer of electronic parts made with Coltan does NOT use Coltan from Africa.

Starting in 2000 the world actually woke up to this problem in the Congo, and manufactures started to buy Coltan elsewhere, since none of the African produced Coltan could actually be certified as mined safely for Lowland Gorillas, or without human rights violations.

Most of the Coltan used in current electronic products actually comes from Australia.

Coltan is a mineral, more properly known as columbite-tantalite. I’ll keep calling it Coltan, since that is easier to type. Coltan is also a byproduct of tin smelting. Coltan is also produced as a byproduct, or mined in many other countries. China, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Russia, and Egypt.

Now I’ll talk about all those human rights violations in the Congo. It’s Africa….it’s tribal. The tribes have ALWAYS been at war with each other….since way before the white Colonists arrived.

The Pygmies were the original human inhabitants of the Congo. Then came the Bantu, who reduced the population of Pygmies. The Bantu came for copper and other minerals.

Whites began arriving in the 14th century, but didn’t have much impact. It wasn’t until the 1870’s that the whites had a real impact in the area, when the Belgians began to colonize the Congo.

With the whites came actual cities, instead of remote villages. That of course concentrated people. The population grew. Malaria drugs, and mosquito control also helped the population grow. Vaccines were seen around the same time, allowing even more babies to survive, and the population grew even more. Basic things like canned food led to even more people surviving. In other words, with the civilization the colonist brought, like railroads, drugs, vaccines and safer foods they provided the means for the native populations to grow tremendously.

Native African populations have long held beliefs that eating the flesh of your enemy can make you stronger (in reference to them eating the flesh of the Pygmy).

There is no war, in which the women and children do not suffer. The men are killed, women and children are brutalized….that goes on no matter what country. It is most unfortunately the nature of the human primate.

Native African populations have also had very long standing superstitious beliefs of witch craft, and witches. It’s only that modern words, like witch, devil, Satan and such have been added to their vocabulary that makes us shocked. Before those words, it was the bad jungle tree god, or something like that which possessed people, both adult and children. In times of stress and strife those accusations and beliefs become more acceptable and common. They have always existed however. They are not new, simply because of the world’s desire for the mineral Coltan.

In the United States, people use to be abducted by fairies, goblins, and werewolves, and have “bad things” done to them. In our modern age, we now know there is no such thing as fairies, goblins, and werewolves, so people are no longer abducted by such creatures. Instead some folks are abducted by UFO’s and have “bad things” done to them. That’s simply an example of how the beliefs have always existed, they just change, and modernize over time, yet the basic belief is the same.

The best thing that could happen to the Congo are wealthy tourist. I realize this point can be hotly debated. If tourist come and want to take pictures of a LIVE gorilla, and pay money for places to eat, sleep, spend money on local crafts, it would be a huge economic boon to people of the area. Unfortunately tourist will not come, until the area is stable, and people are not running about with AK47 and machetes.

I do not think this will ever happen though. The different African tribes are not unified, or trusting of each other. I’ve seen that VERY clearly right here on my own little farm in Idaho.

My customers come right to my farm to buy my meat goats. 99% of my customers are students at the local University. There are a surprising number of African students here. One day a carload of 5 African students arrived to buy a goat. I assumed they all knew each other and were friends. It was two woman, and three men. Innocently, I asked where they were from. “Africa” they all replied. I said, “Yes I know, but where in Africa?” (I wanted to put pins in a map, since I’ve had customers from all parts of the world)

Very suddenly there was a great deal of tension in the air. Everyone looked suspiciously at each other. The men and the women actually started to bicker with each other. Each wanted the other to say what country they were from first. Nobody would say where they were from. There were a lot of “You first’s” being exchanged, and making me nervous was the fact that the knives being used to butcher the goat were now being used to punctuate sentences.

I quickly diffused the situation with a flurry of questions about the need for paper towels, plastic bags, and soap for the butchering. I continued to natter on about inane things like the weather, until I was sure the situation was back to normal.

I later on asked one of the men who is a regular customer, about what that was all about that day. It was just as I had guessed. He said the women, and one of the men did not wish the two other men to know what tribes they were from. I had three different tribes on my farm that day. If there is so little trust between the African people here in the relative safety of the United States, I cannot imagine how it can get better in their own country.

One final thought. Someone stated that we use 30% of the world’s resources, yet North American’s are only 5% of the world’s population. That’s true, we do use those resources, with only a tiny percent of the population…..yet I wonder how much of the world appreciates the food, medicine, technology, and all the other “goodies” we produce and very often give away totally free of charge to 3rd world countries. How much of the world’s resources would we save, if we were not also producing for countries which are unable to produce for themselves? What would happen to those countries, if we decided to save the fuel, water, and a myriad of other things, and not produce the food we ship out on humanitarian efforts?

~Garnet

[Leslie]

Garnet, I don't doubt your sincerity. You paint a much rosier picture, certainly. But the way you simply justify the imperialistic resource exploitation smacks of racism. It's Africa, it's tribal, they always have wars?

Sometimes it seems that the businesses interested in a country's mineral or oil resources often interfere with the government through bribery and quasi-military activity. This could feed civil unrest.