Lithium, cobalt, copper, gold, silver, yttrium, terbium, dysprosium, tin, aluminium, silicon, potassium, praseodymium, gadolinium, arsenic, phosphorous, bromine and carbon.
This list just gave me nightmarish standard grade chemistry flashbacks. Perhaps I should reach out to my old teacher to write this instead. Standard Grades, (3rd and 4th year of high school at the time aged 14/15), is the equivalent to precious little these days and were, unfortunately as far as my scientific education went. But no, this is not what you’re thinking. This is not a list of the contents of a Marlboro Light, which actually would be scarily similar, just with added benzene, arsenic and cadmium. Oh no, I used arsenic already!
These in fact are just some of the elements used to make my smartphone, your smartphone, one of 2.71 billion smartphones worldwide. This makes it somewhere around one for every third person alive today.
These elements, being elements, are obviously not manufactured. All right Sheldon, a small amount of elements can be made, 24 out of 118, but they tend to be useless to anyone that isn’t, well Sheldon. The point is, they have to come from somewhere, and I’ll bet this isn’t considered by the majority of folk who are out to upgrade their smartphones. I include myself in this.
Of course, they come from the Earth. Your Earth, my Earth, the same Earth that is home to 7.8 billion people, one third of which have smartphones. The Earth has provided you with your inseparable tech-wonder, the block of witchy goodness that makes Saruman’s Palantìr look shit, permanently attached to your hand and currently hard wired to your brain.
Elements are mined, and as you might expect, the environmental cost isn’t really considered and even ex-mining areas are faced with severe problems of water, air and soil pollution. As America enters into rare earth mining, we can only hope stringent environmental procedures are followed. No need to look into the Palantìr for that though.
Some of these are rare earth elements, (yytrium, terbium, praseodymium, gadolinium), but the use of the word ‘rare’ there is misleading. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are rare in occurrence. The mining is difficult and expensive when done in ways that are less harmful environmentally. They are rare in how they are dispersed and how hard it is to get hold of them.
Some actually are rare, gold being a perfect example. According to the World Gold Council, we might have only 20 years left to mine. Most of the gold in the world is untouchable. There is actually plenty left, it’s just that it’s under the ocean, or in the earth’s core where we will most likely never be able to excavate it. It seems the earth’s core is a place too expensive or too tricky to reach even for the monetary gain of defence companies and tech giants*. Shame that.
Worth considering before buying that new device or upgrading to the latest model every year. Don’t forget though, you can always save on chargers by using your piss to charge your phone!**
I’ll finish off here by considering the love/hate relationship I have with my phone.
I love it: Has there ever been such an amazing tool at every idiot’s disposal? Imagine giving Galileo one, or Plato. William Blake’s Deviantart page would be superb. Carrying around unlimited information in your pocket! It’s incredible, an utter phenomenon that is now so common place you probably don’t even think of how amazing it actually is. You can answer pretty much any question you can think of by typing in a few words into something smaller than your wallet, which in itself is an outdated idea, probably going the way of the Blackberry, MySpace, Sega and Tab Clear.
I fucking hate it: How dare it follow me about all the time, in my hand! Stupid phone, providing me with endorphins I can’t control because of all the ‘likes’ I’m not getting! I’ve increased usage of late, I try to reduce it, then it creeps back up again. 2 hours a day seems my average, which is unacceptable, a massive amount of time I don’t have. I’m started having phone free days once a week, usually a Saturday, if possible. As much as I hate to admit it, I do feel weirdly disconnected and though there’s always the ‘what if’ someone is trying to get hold of me. Of course there’s a word for this, nomophobia. Fear of being without your phone or out of mobile contact. Sounds shit…
G.W. Harlan
* https://www.energyandcapital.com/articles/only-20-years-of-gold-reserves-left-on-planet-earth/96217
**https://www.iflscience.com/technology/you-can-now-charge-your-smartphone-with-your-pee/