Tannishblog

Greenpeace, that quasi-infamous bastion of eco-consciousness, is after Apple Corporation for lagging behind the rest of the computer industry in recycling efforts. Their take?

We love Apple. Apple knows more about "clean" design than anybody, right? So why do Macs, iPods, iBooks and the rest of their product range contain hazardous substances that other companies have agreed to abandon? A cutting edge company shouldn't be cutting lives short by exposing children in China and India to dangerous chemicals. That's why we Apple fans need to demand a new, cool product: a greener Apple.

Way to go! Finally, Greenpeace is finding a way to generate news that doesn't involve a harpoon. Dell and HP have stepped up to recycle old machines. IBM is getting subtle pressure from some shareholders, via a group called Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, to join the effort. Together, according to Computer Take-Back Campaign, the three companies have recycled over 116,600 tons of obsolete electronics since 2002. Apple, however, only managed to gather 1,500 tons.

As a hardware geek and a computer hobbyist, I have gathered my share of old parts that I loathe to chuck in the trash. (Anyone want a working Compaq 400 MHz box running Win95?) Monitors are especially troublesome to get rid of for me. Case in point: I just finished building my latest home-grown Frankenstein box and, in goofing about with the old troublesome machine managed to fry (D'oh!) both the power supply and the mainboard. What's a circuit nerd to do?

I'm sure there are a few others who cringe at the idea of landfilling their old components. Perhaps necessity finds them squeezing their eyes shut while hefting them in an unwatched dumpster behind the strip mall. Maybe by tossing the pieces away a small bit at a time will ease the conscious. There's a better way. Many states are waking up to the problem of mounds of toxic chemicals leeching from buried circuit boards to offer programs where the components can be recycled adequately.

Besides the option of trashing your machine, there are several organizations that would refurbish and redistribute a used computer for charities. People like myself may forget that many people, even in the US, are still without a computer.

Here's a partial list of resources in no particular order:

• eRecycle.org
• National Recycling Coalition
• Earth911.org
• Give A Computer.org
• Share the Technology

While big-time eco-orgs like Greenpeace can work the large picture, we small fries can and should do what we can to ensure a safer world for the future. And the next time you ponder new hardware, ask yourself if you want a iMac case made out of PVC sitting on your desk. Not all apples are green, it seems.

…Why isn’t America doing stuff like this? From Washington Post:

MERIGNAC, France – Braving queasy stomachs, a five-man team of French physicians took to the skies for the first surgical procedure on a human in zero-gravity conditions, as the aircraft soared and dived to create weightlessness.

The operation, more than three years in the making and part of a three-phase exploration of weightless surgery, is a step toward one day having surgery performed in space, either by a surgeon or a remotely controlled robot. It also is an experiment that may be instructive for a future medical emergency on the international space station.

The flight lasted three hours, but the operation to remove a cyst from a patient’s arm took just about the same amount of time it would have taken in a hospital, physicians said.

While America is concerned with small thinking concepts like Global Hegemony, Europe is quietly eyeing the solar system. One must ask: What is the future of mankind? Where can we go after all the wars resolve themselves into a single global powerhouse? What then?

Humans are curious beasts, ever pondering the unknown. We are explorers, conquerors who have run out of places to annex in the name of "God and Country." When the dust of looming global warfare settles, the remnants will find themselves with a damaged, nearly depleted planet. Small prize for all the bloodshed and sorrow. Meanwhile forward-thinking institutions are planning long term toward what may be the inevitable expansion of the human race. It is, at least, a hope in dark times, one that should be explored until evidence piles up on the futility of hope itself.

What have we, as a nation, to lose that we don’t already risk in global conflict? More importantly: What do we have to gain? To pursue space science, to give the average grunt a vision and hope for future generations (something that is slipping from us,) is to breath life into what is rapidly becoming an untenable condition - the combined effect of climate change, global ideological strife, depleted resources and the consolidation of wealth.

It may seem wacky, now, but our future is up.