Is Your Cell Phone Drenched in Blood?

Cell phones were once a luxury, something that people thought were sort of frivolous. But in today’s age of ever-advancing technology, we’ve come to consider them an absolute necessity. Now practically everyone owns one – and we replace them with new ones every 1-2 years. But at what cost? It turns out that a vital raw material used in many cell phones is often mined illegally, and by slave labor.

As we told you back in July, coltan – short for Columbite-tantalite – is refined to create a heat-resistant metal powder called tantalum that sells for $100 a pound, and illegal operations have cropped up in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Rwandan rebel soldiers were sending prisoners – including children – down into the dangerous mines to do the dirty work. All so we can enjoy our electronics.

Now, we’re being warned that the coltan mining in Congo is threatening the endangered Mountain Gorilla.

From The Inquisitr:

As well the mining of Coltan is located in the area as the Kahuzi Biega National Park which is the home of the Mountain Gorilla and because of this mining the gorilla population has been decimated. Whether it be from starvation because the mining is removing their habitat or from being shot to feed the people doing the mine this need for Coltan has a growing effect on both the people and the animals of the Congo.

Watch this video on coltan mining to get a real sense of the problem. It really makes you think about whether these gadgets are really worth it, doesn’t it?

Learn more about the effects of coltan mining and what electronics companies have to say for themselves in our previous post, ‘African Minerals and Electronics: Technology Soaked in Blood’.

Link [The Inquisitr]
Photo credit: Pulitzer Center

Featured Change Agent: Scott Harrison is Bringing Clean Water to Africa

Scott Harrison had the kind of life many people dream of leading: a glamorous, exciting, privileged life in the glitzy world of upper class Manhattan.  Scott was a party promoter, living in a luxurious loft and dropping hundreds of dollars on Grey Goose vodka.  But something didn’t feel right.  He wasn’t happy.  That’s when he asked himself, ‘what does the opposite of my life look like?’  After doing some digging, he found it and in that instant, his life was profoundly changed.

Scott learned about Mercy Ships, an organization that offers free medical care in the world’s poorest nations on ‘floating hospitals’ – surgery ships where hundreds of top medical professionals from around the world spend their time – and some of them, their entire lives – giving to others.  Scott joined Mercy Ships as a photojournalist, documenting the process of providing medical help to people off the coast of West Africa who were desperately in need.  It was then that he fell in love with the country of Liberia, and realized how good he really had it: he had food to eat, and water to drink. Clean water. Over the next eight months, Scott grew increasingly inspired to do whatever he could to help these people, and that’s how charity: water was born.

Charity: water is a nonprofit organization that has funded more than 600 water projects in 11 developing nations.  They fund local engineers who drill freshwater wells and teach basic sanitation and hygiene.  The wells cost between $4,000 and $10,000 each to dig.

Scott has been able to put his connections in NYC to good use, organizing fundraising projects that have helped bring in the money needed to pay for clean running water for the neediest of communities. Luckily, Scott’s friends wanted to help – and so have thousands of other people who have heard about charity: water’s mission.

You can help, too – whether you’d like to donate money, buy 5 charity: water bracelets so you can spread the message to your friends and family (100% of proceeds goes to building wells), or join Changents as a backer.  As a Changents backer, you can act as a fan, a buzz builder, or a volunteer.  You can also respond to Scott’s action requests to help charity: water continue to make a vital difference in Africa.

Link [Changents] + [Charity: water]

Who’s Who in Green: William Kamkwamba

William Kamkwamba, at fourteen years old, was facing a situation that most Americans could never dream of: his parents could no longer afford to continue his schooling, so he was frced to drop out. His sister had developed a nasty cough from the smoking paraffin candles used to light his family’s home in a Malawian village without electricity. William, one of seven children, was frustrated at the idea of being unable to continue his education, to learn things that could enable him to help his family.

So, William took things into his own hands. With the help of his mentor, Dr. Hartford Mchazime and the Malawi Teacher Training Authority (USAID), William educated himself, reading every book he could get his hands on. One of those books happened to be Using Energy by Mary Atwater, and it inspired him to take on an extremely ambitious project: building a bare-bones but fully-functioning windmill out of scrap materials like salvaged broken pipes, wooden poles, old shoes, copper wire and his father’s old bicycle. He knew that a windmill could provide electricity for his house, eliminating the need for those unhealthy, hard-to-come-by candles.

He cut PVC pipes, heated them and pounded them flat to serve as blades. When a bicycle chain didn’t work the way he wanted it to, he replaced it with an old fan belt from a car. William’s makeshift invention provided enough electricity to power his room, but that wasn’t enough – so he set out to improve it.

He took an old barrel to a tinsmith and had it turned into new, more efficient blades. He took parts from his father’s bike to increase the gear ratio, which helped turn the turbine faster and boost power. He even made electrical components from scratch, fabricating a light switch from plastic pipe and rubber from shoes. Soon, his windmill was supplying power for his family’s entire house as well as charging local cell phones and a car battery for backup power.

Once the word got out about what William had done, he was invited to become a fellow at TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) GLOBAL 2007. TED seeks to spread innovative ideas that have the power to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. TED gave William a computer – which he now powers with his windmill.

Watch William discuss how he built his windmill in this video clip:

William is now using his wind-powered energy to reach out to people in his community. He designed a radio station that transmits to an audience within 100 square meters, and hopes to expand that to 20 miles so he can broadcast messages to his fellow Africans about not contracting HIV.

But he’s not stopping there. William’s next project is building a larger windmill that can help pump water and irrigate his family’s vegetable garden. He hopes to eventually be able to irrigate all of the crops in his village. Through his fellowship with TED, William has received enough support to help him improve his inventions by incorporating solar energy. He has also received enough donations to fund mentorships and his education.

William Kamwkamba’s inspiring story has touched people all over the globe, demonstrating the power of creativity and persistence in the face of a profound lack of resources. You can follow William’s journey at his Malawi Windmill blog, where he keeps readers updated on his inventions and their impact on his community as well as his own life.

William Kamkwamba’s Green Score: 20,893

Photo credit: MyHero.com

Eat Rats to Solve World Food Crisis

An Indian official says that he has the ultimate answer to solving the world’s food crisis. Vijay Prakash, secretary of the northeastern Indian state of Bihar, wants to put rats on food menus. According to Prakash, regular rat snacks would result in fewer rodents eating grain stocks – plus, you know, rats are packed with protein.  And just look at that photo - doesn’t it make your mouth water?

From Breitbart.com:

Prakash’s plan promotes consumption of rat meat in homes, street stalls, restaurants and even international five-star hotels.

He said he was also holding talks with prestigious hotels outside India to encourage them to put rat meat on their menus, but admitted his scheme had to overcome public prejudice.

“The only issue is how people react to rat meat, but I think it will not be a problem,” he said.

“Some socially deprived people in Bihar have always consumed rat meat. If they can eat rats, why can’t the rest of the people?” he said.

Members of the Mushar community and some other impoverished groups have traditionally eaten rats in India.

Call me crazy, but somehow I just don’t see this catching on in most areas of the world, especially the United States. Something tells me that rat fritters and the rodent filet sandwich would be the least popular items on the McDonald’s menu. We could certainly all benefit from eating a wider variety of foods, but rats are probably not the answer to the food crisis.

But, hey, it’s the Year of the Rat – and as you can see on this National Geographic video, residents of the West African country of Togo have been doing it for ages.

Link [Breitbart] + [YouTube]

Poor Countries Left in the Dust as Center for Atmospheric Research Drops Important Program

For poor nations, the upcoming effects of climate change will now be even more difficult to get through. The National Center for Atmospheric Research, a major hub of work on the causes and consequences of climate change, has eliminated a program that aimed to help poor countries deal with droughts, floods and other climate-related hazards.

Faced with a shrinking budget, the center apparently decided that poor nations’ ability to help their people through incredible hardships that could occur as climate change wreaks havoc on the planet, just wasn’t one of their ‘core’ goals.

From The New York Times:

One scientist, Ilan Kelman, a senior research fellow at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, said he was “appalled” that the National Center for Atmospheric Research, based in Boulder, Colo., “would suddenly end one of the most productive programs and would let go of one of the most productive scientists within the institute.”

“In terms of value for money,” he added, “Dr. Glantz’s science was among the best, being cutting-edge and cost-effective, yet influencing the world. He also ensured that science was used for humanity and by humanity.”

This is bullshit. It amounts to washing their hands of the people who need them most. If anything, they should be expanding programs like this, to ensure that climate science research touches on its potential effects on the people of the world and not just abstract theories.

Note: Hit up BugMeNot.com to get logins and passwords for The New York Times if you don’t want to register.

Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

African Minerals and Electronics: Technology Soaked in Blood

How much did you pay for your Playstation 2? Your laptop and cell phone? Chances are, it wasn’t too much, but someone else paid a far higher price than a week or two’s salary so that you could have those things. While we Westerners enjoy a wealth of electronics that entertain us and help make our lives more convenient, over in Africa, people are dying because of an ore called coltan that’s used to create those electronics.

Coltan is short for Columbite-tantalite. It’s refined to create a heat-resistant metal powder called tantalum that sells for $100 a pound and is a key component in everything from mobile phones to computer chips. Most of the tantalum used in electronics comes from legitimate mining operations in countries like Australia, Canada and Brazil, but as demand for the substance has surged, illegal operations have cropped up in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There, coltan mining is being exploited as a source of revenue for warring rebel groups. In effect, it’s being stolen from the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which desperately needs the income, and illegally sold to companies like SONY.

As if that weren’t enough, the UN also discovered that Rwandan rebels and soldiers were using prisoners of war and children to do the dirty work, sending them down into the mines.

From TowardFreedom.com:

“Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms,” said British politician Oona King, who was a Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2005.

While most of the fighting ended in 2003, there are still Western companies that continue to mine coltan in Congo or purchase illegally obtained coltan from miners in the country. Some of the companies have been named as Eagle Wings Resources International of Ohio, Cabot Corporation of Boston, and Chemie Pharmacie Holland of the Netherlands. These companies have been charged by a London-based group called Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID) and the UN with stealing millions of dollars of resources from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Despite being called to action by RAID and the UN, Western nations aren’t responding to the charges, refusing to look into the investigation. The U.S. government reportedly pressured the UN to drop the charges against the American companies involved. RAID says that the UN caved in because they’re afraid that if Western mining companies are prosecuted out of Africa, China may step in. China has signed many resource concessions with African nations including Sudan and Nigeria.

So, how exactly is tantalum used in the items that we enjoy in our 21st century electronics-laden lives? Tantalum’s unique ability to withstand extremely high temperatures makes it the perfect material for electric capacitors, which are used to store energy in the electric field between conductors in an electronic device. The more we buy cell phones, laptop computers, gaming consoles and other electronic devices, the more the demand for tantalum goes up.

At this point, there’s not much consumers can do about the issue aside from limiting the purchase of electronic goods as much as is feasible. Most of the onus is on manufacturers of electronics, who must find legitimate sources of coltan.

The world’s largest maker of tantalum capacitors, U.S.-based Kemet, has vowed to ensure that the coltan used in their capacitors is not from Congo. Their suppliers will be forced to verify the origins of the coltan they sell.

Unfortunately, coltan and tantalum changes hands so many times between various companies before it ends up in the actual product, it’s hard to verify exactly how companies get it. SONY, for one, denies that the tantalum in their products came from Congo despite allegations to the contrary.

From TowardFreedom.com:

David Barouski, a researcher and journalist from Wisconsin, says it is certain that the coltan from this conflict is also in SONY video game consoles across the world. “SONY’s PlayStation 2 launch (spring of 2000) was a big part of the huge increase in demand for coltan that began in early 1999,” said Barouski, who has witnessed the chaos of eastern DRC firsthand.

Apparently, statistical analysis shows that it would be near impossible for SONY to have manufactured all of those Playstations without using Congolese coltan. SONY still uses tantalum in many of their products, though they say they’re ‘satisfied’ with the assertions from their suppliers that it does not come from Congo. Many other companies can offer only vague assurances that their sources are legitimate, saying it’s impossible to be entirely sure where the metal comes from and that all they can do is trust their suppliers.

It’s difficult to say how many other metals and materials used in electronics might be mined in such a way, or how exactly they might be affecting the environment. No major studies have been done that show where each component in an electronic device is originally derived from. That’s what’s ultimately so frustrating for consumers. Since the parts for the more complex items we purchase come from so many different sources, it’s impossible to make sure what you’re buying hasn’t come at the expense of another person’s life.

Perhaps what we really need is some kind of certification system that manufacturers must participate in, that details the sources of their materials. Companies undoubtedly take a lot of shortcuts to make bigger profits, and the only way to protect against things like the Congo coltan issue is to hold them accountable. The appetite for electronics isn’t likely to die down any time soon – if anything, it will continue to grow. We need technology in order to make a better future for ourselves and the world - but that technology needs to be smart and green, not soaked in blood.

Link [TowardFreedom.com]
Photo credit: Flickr user Mngillen + Pulitzer Center

Lake Chad 1/20th its Former Size

Lake Chad is virtually vanishing at an alarming rate – a consequence of mismanagement of freshwater that experts warn could lead to a major worldwide water crisis. Lake Chad was once the third-largest body of fresh water in Africa, and 40 years ago had a surface area equivalent to Lake Eerie. An intense long-standing drought in combination with tremendous demand from nearby villages has reduced it drastically.

From Circle of Blue:

The shrinking lake has had a substantial impact on the local populations, as entire communities have switched from a fishing-lifestyle to one of farming and agriculture. Local communities that once ringed the shores of the lake are now isolated villages — miles from water — and these populations have literally begun farming the now-dry lake bottom. Much like the drying of Uzbekistan’s Aral Sea, the impacts are far-reaching and complex.

Jonathon Foley and Michael Coe of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, found that while the drought has caused significant declines in water levels, human factors are mostly to blame for the present levels.

“There are enough people in the world now that we need to start planning and looking at fresh water as a finite resource or we’re going to be in trouble. We don’t get any more.”

Expecting to still have plenty of fresh water available despite the double-whammy of population increase and climate change is dangerous and potentially catastrophic. With examples like Lake Chad showing us the reality of a potential water crisis, it’s time to start approaching our water resources in a different way.

Link [Circle of Blue]

Climate Change Could Spark Wars Worldwide

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine that drastically changing weather patterns could promote instability around the world, especially in areas that are already dealing with conflict. Environmental groups have been saying so for years, and now U.S. spies are warning the government that global warming could lead to the collapse of governments and the creation of terrorist safe havens.

From Inside Defense, via Wired:

In addition to examining how weather could add stress to governments with a weak grip on power … the authors mulled a spectrum of second- and third-order consequences for Washington policymakers to consider — including indirect security concerns like impacts on economies, energy, social unrest and migration.

Foreign-policy concerns were also weighed, including how flooding, rising water levels or drought might create humanitarian crises. Also examined was how extreme weather events could challenge the response capabilities of governments around the world.

Though the Bush administration has done everything they could to suppress the knowledge that climate change is actually happening and will get worse, the nation’s military leaders have taken the strategic implications very seriously. Last Wednesday, leading spies testified on Capitol Hill about the report.

The panel who spoke to the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and the Intelligence Community Management Subcommittee included retired army generals and ‘geoengineering’ proponents along with a global warming skeptic put in place by Republicans on the Intelligence Committee, who were opposed to the report in the first place.

That’s right, Republicans are still – even after all of the information and dire predictions that have come out – denying that climate change is real. Amazing.

Link [Wired]
Photo credit: Darfur Refugees, via Wikimedia Commons

Mmmmm…. Kraft Anti-Intestinal Worm Mac & Cheese

There’s nothing like a little Anti-Intestinal Worm Mac & Cheese for lunch.

Environmental Graffiti has a story about a partnership between Kraft Food and pesticide maker TyraTech to produce a food that will kill intestinal worms.

Kraft has not said what type of food is being created, but that it will aim to sell the food in rural areas of Asia, Africa, and South America. All of these locations have significant problems with intestinal worms, particularly in children. Worms can seriously affect the health of children, making them lethargic and anemic.

The food, whatever it may be, will contain deworming chemicals from TyraTech, who currently make safe pesticides from plant oils. Dr. R. Douglas Armstrong, CEO of TyraTech, said the anti-worming oils work by attaching to olfactory and nervous system receptors found only in invertebrates. This overstimulates the receptors, which produce a wave of impulses in the nervous system that repels or kills the worms. He likened it to ringing a doorbell so often it causes a heart attack out of annoyance.

Humans, and other vertebrates, do not have the receptors, so the oil does no harm to them. The oil has already been shown to work in mice. Several mice were infected with dwarf tapeworms, but after less than a week of treatment the worms were gone. No tests have yet been performed on humans.

Head over and read the whole story. It’s stomach churningly good.

Link [Environmental Graffiti] & [New York Times]