Consumerism

I am looking at my phone and remembering when I bought it a few months ago. For whatever reason, my statement about how every action has some sort of impact popped into my head. How did purchasing my phone impact mine and other ecosystems? I did my best to break it all down and when I put consideration into it all, I indirectly interact with and influence many more ecosystems than I thought:

1.      I drove to purchase it, using petroleum which came from old life forms which have decomposed over a very long period.

2.      Burning the petroleum while driving releases CO2 into the air.

3.      The phone was manufactured using many mined materials – aluminum, steel, copper, gold, silicon. The operations to get these materials undoubtably influenced the ecosystems that they were found in.

4.      The factories that the phones are produced in were not created naturally by the earth. Humans built them over and existing ecosystem.

5.      The machines used in the factory also required factories and materials to produce.

6.      All these factories require electricity to operate which was most likely produced by coal power plants. These powerplants burn more fossil fuel and release more CO2 into the atmosphere.

7.      My phone also requires electricity to charge the battery.

8.      The components and materials to make the phone and the phone itself were shipped from all over the place using even more fuel.

9.      The use of my cell phone requires cellular towers to be built all over the world.

10.   GPS requires satellites to be launched into space using even more resources.

As you can see, I could keep going on and on and on about all the impacts a simple act of purchasing and using a cellular device has on countless ecosystems on the earth. And just about everyone has a cell phone!