Apple iMac 24″, Apple Wireless Mouse, Apple Wireless Keyboard, Apple Wired Keyboard, Apple iPhone 3G, Apple iPod Shuffle, Apple iPod 30G, Asus Eee Netbook, Seagate External Drive, HP Photosmart Printer/Scanner/Photocopier LG 50″ Plasma TV, XBbox 360, PSP, M-Audio Speakers, Canon PowerShot S5IS, Sony Wireless Headphones, Bose headphones, Sennheiser headphones, and a Logitech Squeeze Box.
My name is Andrew and I am a technology addict. The list above is proof. The really worrying thing is that most of that has been bought in the last couple of years. It doesn’t include the myriad gadgets and other tech toys accumulated and discarded over the last ten years or so.
But eventually you have to say enough is enough. And that is what I am doing today. Writing about green issues and technology leaves you wide open for accusations of hypocrisy and I have to hold my hands up to being guilty on all charges. Shooting holes in the tech policies of companies such as Apple, Dell and HP while also continuing to happily consume a good chunk of the new products they churn out is pretty shameful.
So from today I have decided to draw a line. I am going to take my own advice, and that of numerous environmental experts, and sweat my tech assets. No new tech unless it’s replacing something broken. Citing the claim in numerous articles that 75 percent of the environmental impact of new tech is incurred during manufacture but continuing to buy new kit on a regular basis cannot continue.
Why now you ask? Well my epiphany came during Steve Job’s latest sermon. Despite knowing all about Jobs’s infamous reality distortion field, the environmental costs of creating and disposing of tech, not to mention the shocking series of suicides at one of Apple’s main manufacturers in China, I felt myself being sucked in – again. I felt that nagging little voice in the back of head whispering that my old iphone is looking a bit tired and the new one is so lovely and shiny. So shiny and precious. I have turned into a tech Gollum without realising it.
A Technology Gollum
Yes, the iPhone 4 does have some genuine new features. Better battery-life for one is a fantastic improvement. And so is the idea of video-calling. As a new father I was shamefully sucked in by the saccharine promotional video from Apple which shows some road-warrior Daddy gazing lovingly at his wife and child via an iPhone video chat.
For more go to eWEEK Europe UK
EARTHED-TECH 