'Modern
consumer society is structured so that we are constantly unhappy with
what we have. Advertisers make us feel dissatisfied so we keep buying
new things, which is good for the economy but bad for the environment.
Consumers collaborate in this wastefulness by being fooled into
thinking that they can fill the inner void by consuming.' - Clive Hamilton
About a month ago I got a new mobile phone. I like to imagine that I
am not a 'phone person' – I won’t answer a phone when in the middle of
a conversation, I relish putting it on silent, and I occasionally still
leave the house without it. However like most people these days, I’m
fairly beholden to it.
This new phone had all the bells, whistles, and things
I-never-knew-I-needed-but-now-would-find-changed-my-life. To wit, an
address book big enough to hold the population of Panama (3.19million
according to the CIA), colour screen the size of the Jumbotron, 6 air bags, 8 cup holders, flux capacitor…you get the idea.
I was amazed at all of these features. A call to Clive Hamilton at the Australia Institute revealed I was not the only person wondering 'why all the techno-wizardry?'
As Mr Hamilton put it, 'Until companies start thinking in terms of
what might be a more environmentally sound approach to building new
products, I fear we will be stuck with this interminable ‘upgrade or be
obsolete’ mentality.'
When it came time to charge the phone, I discovered my old charger
did not fit my new phone. Imagine my surprise. Both were made by Nokia,
one was two years older than the other. Thankfully there was a new
charger in the box.
I examined the point of the new charger. It was around
one-one-millionth of a percent smaller than the old charger, thus
utterly unusable. Why?
I’m not trying to single out Nokia. The phone could have been a Sony
Ericsson, a Motorola or a Samsung. Mobile phone makers have a taken a
lot of heat in recent years from consumer groups and governments about
being environmentally responsible.
A call to Nokia, followed by some browsing on the homepage, revealed
a plethora of 'corporate responsibility' type statements, environmental
reports, information on how to recycle one’s old phone and the like.
But what about my charger? In one fell swoop, the ten chargers I had
accumulated, inherited, and purchased over the years were rendered
useless lumps of plastic.
This
got me thinking about other technology companies. Apple is the darling
of our new media age. Its iPod, music store, 'digital lifestyle
solutions' and computers are the sine