It's the mining stupid.
The Guardian is actually a pretty excellent journal, compared to much of London's Yellow Press. So when it "recycled" some photos of scrappers in Agbogbloshie this week, actually calling it "the largest e-waste dump in the world", it got a lot of 're-tweets'.
I called them out earlier, and a journalist at Fox News called to quote my reaction. Read to the bottom of Jeremy Kaplan's piece on the "Ghana's E-waste Nightmare" to see "poverty porn" in a quotation in major news media, a possible first.
Here are the facts:
1) None of the vintage electronics in those photos is typically purchased by African traders today. Agbogbloshie is the "end of pipe" for Accra's piping hot interenet, which grew ten-fold in the past decade (see 2 blogs back). (Eric Prempeh, Good Point's head tech, is over there now, measuring demand).
2) The article distracts from actual environmental nightmares, including those the Guardian has covered.
- Tin mining on coral islands of Indonesia (The Guardian hits the spot)
- Gold mining in Ghana (The Atlantic)
- Kabwe, Zambia, lead mine, the MOST TOXIC PLACE ON EARTH...
- Today on VOA, Gold Mining in Uganda
- We could go on and on here, OK Tedi Mine in Borneo, Zinc smelter spills in Guangdong, smelter spills in the Danube, lead mining in the Andes, 14 of the 15 largest Superfund sites in the USA, conflict metal mining for tantalum in Congo's river basin, zinc mines of Kunming....
3) Had the devices at Agbogbloshie, imported ten years ago, been shredded, African cities would still have e-waste at dumps. Had the devices, imported for reuse ten years ago, been shredded, MORE MINING would have taken place, more carbon spilled, unless you want to assume Africans never got electronic media.
"Using a used CRT for 10 years is better than mining for a flat screen"
- Captain Obvious.
The Guardian is actually a pretty excellent journal, compared to much of London's Yellow Press. So when it "recycled" some photos of scrappers in Agbogbloshie this week, actually calling it "the largest e-waste dump in the world", it got a lot of 're-tweets'.
I called them out earlier, and a journalist at Fox News called to quote my reaction. Read to the bottom of Jeremy Kaplan's piece on the "Ghana's E-waste Nightmare" to see "poverty porn" in a quotation in major news media, a possible first.
It's the mining stupid.
 |
| Six pieces of WEE sited at African city dump!! OOOGA BOOGA OOOGA BOOGA |
Here are the facts:
1) None of the vintage electronics in those photos is typically purchased by African traders today. Agbogbloshie is the "end of pipe" for Accra's piping hot interenet, which grew ten-fold in the past decade (see 2 blogs back). (Eric Prempeh, Good Point's head tech, is over there now, measuring demand).
2) The article distracts from actual environmental nightmares, including those the Guardian has covered.
- Tin mining on coral islands of Indonesia (The Guardian hits the spot)
- Gold mining in Ghana (The Atlantic)
- Kabwe, Zambia, lead mine, the MOST TOXIC PLACE ON EARTH...
- Today on VOA, Gold Mining in Uganda
- We could go on and on here, OK Tedi Mine in Borneo, Zinc smelter spills in Guangdong, smelter spills in the Danube, lead mining in the Andes, 14 of the 15 largest Superfund sites in the USA, conflict metal mining for tantalum in Congo's river basin, zinc mines of Kunming....
It's the mining stupid.
3) Had the devices at Agbogbloshie, imported ten years ago, been shredded, African cities would still have e-waste at dumps. Had the devices, imported for reuse ten years ago, been shredded, MORE MINING would have taken place, more carbon spilled, unless you want to assume Africans never got electronic media.
"Using a used CRT for 10 years is better than mining for a flat screen"
- Captain Obvious.
