Consumerism // Current TV

A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers, showing their progress in creating products with conflict-free minerals and the steps they've taken to ensure that. EP estimates that conflict mining is a $185 million business, which is even more shocking when you consider the World Bank says average the average miner makes only $5 a day.

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By Michelle Castillo, TechLand, on December 15, 2010
Many of our electronic devices are made up of minerals like tantalum, used to make the capacitors in most cell phones, and tin, which makes up the inside lining of some cell phones and is used to solder circuit boards. Unfortunately, many of these materials come from conflict-ridden areas of the Congo, where increasing profits from electronic sales help fund the inhumane treatment of people who live and work in the country. The Enough Project, an advocacy group focused on ending genocide and crimes against humanity, estimates that conflict mining is a $185 million business, which is even more shocking when you consider the World Bank says average the average miner makes only $5 a day.

According to Raise Hope for Congo, more than 5.4 million people have died from the continuous wars that ravage the country. The organization urges people to tell companies that they want conflict free products. Congo's minerals are especially attractive to electronic manufacturers because of unregulated mining practices and cheap labor. Minerals from the African nation cost half or a third as much the same materials from other countries, according to the Washington Post. Though the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Act requires manufacturers to identify and get rid of conflict minerals in their products and similar legislation will be mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2011, Congolese mines are often controlled by armed groups and militias. These groups smuggle the minerals out of the country to smelting companies on other continents, which means the origin of the minerals can often be masked even from the company commissioning the product. Even though Congo's president announced a ban on all artisanal mining in eastern Congo last August, the ruling has not been enforced by the country's national military and has even negatively affected the citizens who work in the mines as a main source of income.

A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers, showing their progress in creating products with conflict-free minerals and the steps they've taken to ensure that. Leading the pack was HP with an over 30 percent improvement. The company has endorsed anti-conflict mineral legislation and advocates for strong US regulations for all manufacturers. Apple, who uses tantalum not only in their smartphones but in iPods as well, were given a yellow score, which means there is much room for improvement. (Though several of their top executives have spoken out against conflict mineral mining in the Congo, they did not weigh in on key US conflict mineral legislation.) Toshiba received the worst score of the bunch; they have barely made any changes at all according to the study. Enough Project knows it may be hard for the average consumer to tell whether or not they are helping fund a war over natural resources just by looking at a product. Still, the group hopes that especially this holiday season when people are out shopping for the latest gadgets that by being little more knowledgeable about which companies are taking a stand against genocide and human rights abuses, shoppers can judge for themselves whether or not to support these crimes against humanity.

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Is Your Mobile Device or Laptop Funding Conflict Mineral Wars?
By Michelle Castillo on December 15, 2010
http://techland.time.com/2010/12/15/is-your-mobile-device-or-laptop-funding-conflict-wars/A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers,... more

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UN Peacekeepers Trying To Head Off Christmas Massacre In Congo (Over Blood Minerals For Consumer Goods)

The United Nations has ordered 900 peacekeepers to a remote region of Democratic... more

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African leaders pledge to wipe out trade of conflict minerals

Leaders from 11 nations in the conflict-ravaged Great Lakes region of central Africa... more

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Colossal "rape mine" where more than 300,000 women and girls have been brutalised

Hundreds of women and children were raped over and over during 3 days in July, another... more

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GLOBAL POLITICAL AWAKENING: America Gone Wild: Black Friday Lunacy

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The all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world

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Target Flash Mob Protest

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Gulf of Mexico Has Long Been a Sink of Pollution

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Supermarkets are Carting Away the Oceans

This is the first post of "On the Hook," a five-part series focused on how consumers can help further the sustainable seafood movement.

If you want to know who's responsible for decimating the world's oceans, look no farther than your local supermarket. Throughout the world, grocery stores and restaurants continue to sell threatened fish species like Chilean sea bass, shark, bluefin tuna, and orange roughy, just to name a few. The situation's gotten so bad that experts say 75 percent of the world's fisheries have been pushed beyond their sustainable limits, while nine out of ten of the seas' large fish species have disappeared. At the rate we're going, years from now there really won't be other fish in the sea.

U.S. grocery stores are no exception to this fishing disaster. A couple months ago, Greenpeace released its 2010 "Carting Away the Oceans" report. The report ranked 20 national supermarkets' sustainable seafood policies, scoring the stores as "good," "pass," or "fail." Of the 20 grocery stores surveyed, only half earned passing marks.

The real problem here is that stores continue to sell fish listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. These 22 fish—like grouper, bigeye tuna, monkfish, and more—boast some of the lowest population numbers of all marine creatures. But despite their scarcity, in most cases these fish are afforded no legal protections, so fishermen keep on catching and consumers keep on buying. Even when there are catch limits in place, as is the case with bluefin tuna, many fishermen continue to catch the fish illegally because they rake in such huge profits.

And while most U.S. supermarkets could stand to improve their sustainable seafood policies, Costco reigns as the biggest offender. Everything at Costco is huge—the same is true of the store's environmental footprint. Of the 22 IUCN Red List species, Costco sells 15: Alaskan pollock, Atlantic cod, Atlantic salmon, Atlantic sea scallops, Chilean sea bass, grouper, monkfish, ocean quahog, orange roughy, red snapper, redfish, South Atlantic albacore tuna, swordfish, tropical shrimp, and yellowfin tuna. The store's fish coolers really serve as a one-stop shop for oceanic destruction.

Environmental groups have been pushing supermarkets to beef up their sustainable seafood practices, and Greenpeace recently launched a campaign specifically targeting Costco. The non-profit's "Oh-No-Costco" campaign asks the store to put three measures in place: One, implement an effective and publicly available sustainable seafood policy. Two, provide transparent labeling so consumers can know what they're buying and where it came from. And finally, Greenpeace wants the store to stop selling all Red List fish, beginning immediately with Chilean sea bass and orange roughy.

Fish haven't gotten the legal protections they deserve, so it's really up to consumers to help save the world's oceans. Shoppers use fish guides like Monterey Bay Aquarium's to make sure they're selecting only the most sustainable seafood choices. And consumers can take supermarkets like Costco to task for their unsustainable offerings. Sign Greenpeace's petition telling Costco it's time to stop filling its coolers with threatened fish.

Petition can be found at link:

http://food.change.org/blog/view/tell_costco_to_stop_selling_endangered_fishThis is the first post of "On the Hook," a five-part series focused on how... more

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Your Money or Your Life: Why Work Yourself to Death? | | AlterNet

Our affluent life-styles are having an increasingly devastating effect on our planet. We need to start answering for them.
June 19, 2010 |

This story is reprinted by arrangement with Penguin Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin. Copyright © 2009 by Vicki Robin.

If this were just a private hell it would be tragedy enough. But it’s not. Our affluent life-styles are having an increasingly devastating effect on our planet.

Over two decades ago, The United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development warned that consumption patterns in the developed world were one of the primary engines driving global environmental damage. Since that time, it has only gotten worse.

We can all recite the tragic indicators of this disaster—from climate change to rainforest destruction to species extinctions. They are front-page news, transforming many of us into reluctant and frightened ecologists. And these conditions are made worse by an advertising industry that creates demand for products we don’t need that are using up natural resources at a rate far faster than the planet can replenish them.

We are piling up economic debt on top of our ecological deficit. As economic commentator Lester Thurow, speaking on National Public Radio, put it, it’s as if we borrowed up to our eyeballs for the greatest New Year’s Eve party ever. During the party everyone was happy. But come January 2, there was no more fun and only bills to pay. The last decades are like our blow-off bash, and it looks like “January 2” will be the reality for the next generation. This is particularly serious because by 2008 the United States had gone from being the world’s largest creditor nation to the world’s largest debtor nation. U.S. businesses, houses, land and government bonds are increasingly owned by foreign investors. We’ve mortgaged the farm, and the rent collector may come knocking any decade now.

Concurrently, we have seen an increasing gulf between the rich and poor, both within the United States and around the world. Millions are homeless for want of affordable housing, while others have millions to spend on luxury homes. Historically such disequilibrium is the forerunner of dramatic and even violent change.

Financially, socially, politically and spiritually we’ve rung up some serious debts in our post–World War II spending spree. One way or another, we will pay up—with interest.

The Biggest Loser in the Money Game

The pity is that many of us are not even aware of this debt because our primary benefactors don’t have a voice and we didn’t even know we were borrowing from them. We haven’t just borrowed from “the bank.” We’ve borrowed from future generations, and from our very generous planet.

As ecologist Garret Hardin pointed out, on our shrinking planet, nature is like the village commons where we all graze our sheep. If we respect each other and respect the commons, all our sheep get fed and the commons and the community thrive. But if some folks start looking out only for themselves, they may start grazing extra sheep. Suddenly, goodwill is gone, we’re all grazing extra sheep and the commons is destroyed.

More at the link:Our affluent life-styles are having an increasingly devastating effect on our planet.... more

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