Paul
Current Event Posting Number 1
Topic: Tech
Writer: Amy Gahran
Publication Name: How to Make Your Cell Phone Greener
Date of Publication: September 24, 2o10

Main Ideas:

Almost all cell phones are made of a rare mineral (tantalum) found in central africa that is very valuable and causes violence in this region of the world causing human rights issues. The modern day smart phone takes lots of energy, sometimes the phone's battery will only last one day unless it has a complicated energy-saving strategy. The making of the cell phone takes 16 Kg of CO2 emissions by it self and over the life time of the phone it will cause about 94 Kg of CO2 emissions. To help lessen these emissions, cell phone companies have started to come out with phones that have a solar panel on them and phones that are made out of recycled materials, same with the shipping materials used to transport them. Besides buying new eco-friendly phones, people can use texting more and talk on land lines instead of talking on their cell phones.

conclusions:

This article is talking about the environmental impact that cell phones have and how cell phone companies are trying to help lessen the impact on the environment. This article also gives some good pointers on how you as a consumer can help by doing small things like texting or using land lines instead of using your cell phone to help lower the emissions caused by cell phones.

opinion:

This article is true in how cell phones are not great for the environment but they should have used a little more math to show how big the world cell phone use is and how much CO2 emissions that causes. I think the governments of the world should do more to regulate the emissions caused by cell phones and the violence that goes along with the production of the phone to help preserve lives.