Appeared in:
- OurPlanet (E-Magazine’s weekly newsletter) as Cell Phone Ecology, Jan. 5, 2010
- Santa Monica Daily Press as The Ecology of Cell Phones, Aug. 31, 2009
- Southern Sierran, May 2009
- Vall-E-Vents, newsletter for Sierra Club San Fernando Valley, May 2009.
The Ecology of Loving and Leaving Your Cell Phone
Sarah S. Mosko Ph.D.
Given all the environmental costs of cell phones, certainly the most eco-friendly cell is the one you already own.
It’s not much of a stretch to liken America’s relationship with cells phones to a once sizzling romance that ends in good bye.
Fated love affairs typically begin with blind infatuation and fiery passion before reality sets in, cooling the embers enough to allow more guarded, sometimes less attractive aspects of the self to surface. Interest wanes until the love object is abandoned or replaced by an alluring new one.
Americans relate to cell phones in much the same way. An old phone, with once novel features that drew fascination, is discarded with hardly a thought when an updated model makes it seem obsolete. That consumers replace cell phones about every two years – with Californians purchasing in a single year nearly one new cell for every two state residents – makes this analogy seem less silly.
Posted by Sarah (Steve) Mosko 
Boogie Green 