Have you considered where your laptop, television, cell phone, mp3 player, and all those other gadgets come from? This new movie gives a great introduction to the lifecycle of our electronic devices:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW_7i6T_H78&feature=play
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(You might recognize Annie Leonard, who also created the viral video "Story of Stuff")

How do you manage your electronics?

This movie is really eye opening. It is a bit surprising to see where all our electronics come from. As a part of our current generation I do feel the urge to consistently update my technology to stay current. However as many modern critics say, we should learn to put away our gadgets and learn to enjoy the outdoors more again. I will try to consume less technological products that are not absolutely necessary!

This is a great message especially about how products are "designed for the dump". I was happy to hear that cell phones will now be made with universal charging components. I have a drawer full of old cell phone chargers just like the tangled mess in the video. Each new phone has required a new charger and new car adapter charger. It would be one small green step to be able to use the same charger for all phones and hopefully other chargeable electronics like mp3 players in the future. I try not to update and replace all of my electronics the minute the latest version is released, but if my old TV is leaking toxins, maybe it is time to replace it. However, how do we know the safety of the cutting edge products? Are they any less toxic?

These are interesting video series. I appreciate how popular they have become, and are actually being shown in class rooms around the country, but I am hesitant to fully endorse them. I like making people think, but these movies' over-simplification of the issues discussed is potentially misleading. It's like Michael Moore's documentaries; sure they are intriguing, and might even move people toward positive action, but they often verge on misleading, and intentionality avoid facts from the other side of the argument. I love the message, and perhaps sensationalism is the only way to forward a message these days; but let's not lose sight of honest discourse, and let's be wary of biased information. I want to convince people to save the environment because it is the right thing to do, and it will improve their lives, not because they are scared into doing it; let's leave scare tactics to the right.

It's crazy to think of a world without electronics now though, isn't it? Try living a day without using something that required electricity!

When something breaks in my house, I struggle without it. I've never gone more than a couple of days without having to get my major appliances repaired

A terrific documentary by the legend Edward Burtynsky gives us a peak into the eye-opening scales of extraction and production necessary for our electronics consumption...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZnZOe_tKCs&feature=rela
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