the hidden cost of a cellphone..

I want a new phone.
My old Nokia's is well, old. It is battered, hangs up at whim and is uncool. I have been eying other models-in-the-market. Cool, swanky models. In neon pink and classy black. Great features: Flash Camera X pixel, Blue Tooth. SMS, MMS, VLAN, 3G, GSM, GPRS and more such acronyms which i don't quite comprehend. I itch to get rid of the old. Its use is over. Almost, and i wanna move onto the Newer-Younger, model.
But before i could close the deal, I had some nasty thoughts, a prick of the ol' conscience.
Truth is, I can't afford one. And not just because i am broke, looks like Planet Earth is pretty broke too.

The mobile is made up metals and other components, many of which are toxic. I won't go into the fact that many of these are cancer causing, damage human nervous and reproductive systems--in fact the plastic contains phthalates, which are 'gender-bender' chemicals.
Here is another shocker, the green, and actual cost of that fancy cell phone: a typical mobile phone weighs say around 75 gms. To get that 75 gms more than 30 kilograms of rock has to be mined from the earth. Manufacturing the chips requires several hundred litres of water. And the energy to do all this burns huge amounts of fossil fuel.
I read in journalist Fred Pearce book Confessions of An Eco-Sinner that a phones typical two year life (and how many of us use a phone that long?) raises the weight of a phone's overall rucksack to about 75 kg, a 1000 times more than its actual--and we are not including the water.
The clincher is the origin of Colton-a bunch of minerals including Tantalum (guys, its there is just about everything from laptops to watches to jewelery). 80 per cent of this wonder metal is found in Congo. And so are one of the most endangered species on the planet, and a close relative--The Mountain Gorilla. Only about 400 on Planet Earth. Not only is the habitat of this critically endangered gorilla being destroyed and plundered by mining, it is being poached relentlessly. Mainly killed for bush meat by the locals displaced by the mines and pushed into desperate poverty. The western low land gorillas have been heavily poached too, and clearing the forest for mines means their home is shrinking by the day. The forests are being stripped for charcoal, to light the fires of the locals—and the miners.
Horrifyingly, mining for coltan is also funding the worst genocide which has killed lakhs of people. As the world hooked onto cellphones—it is believed there is one for every three people in the planet-- prices for the wonder mineral shot up, and the rebel militia cashed in, amassing fortunes in Swiss banks and using it for arms.
The weight of my mobile has got heavier, and the allure of the new model has dipped.
For the moment, I will give the I-Phone IV, the android or the N 500 a miss, even if my oldie has hung up and refuses to connect.
Maybe, that's a blessing!

@ prerna singh bindra