Gross Polluters (Part I of II)

Date: 01 October, 2007

By: Chief

ight about now most people, myself included, are just flat out sick and tired listening to the self righteous environmental wackos spewing forth more hot air about global warming and that all of We the People are at fault for causing this purported calamity. Further, it is these same pompous — assholes — there is no better word, that are telling, got that, telling We the People what sacrifices we must all make in order to allegedly save our planet.

But the green weenies are not prepared to make any such sacrifice.

Well, let us just take a look at a single product that apparently no self respecting green weenie can do without — the cell phone.

Yes indeed boy and girls, just about everybody has at least one of those worthless pieces of excrement dangling from their belt or purse or pants pocket. And some real self-centered idiots will have two of the damned things dangling loose. It would seem that cell phones are absolutely indispensable — indeed a matter of life and death. The environmental wackos or green weenies just love the damned things and are constantly burning up the airwaves with their idiotic chatter.

But it is the cell phone itself and its supporting infrastructure, which is immense, that has me interested. One would think the green weenies would be very interested as well considering all the pollution one cell phone causes. But apparently not.

What? A cell phone causes pollution? How could that possibly be? It is really simple. And with that in mind, it is now time to turn our attention to the cell phone.

There is an extremely wide array of industries and industrial capacity behind each and every cell phone. The following is a rather short list of industries, each of which are required in order for a single solitary idiot (or green weenie) with a single solitary cell phone to initiate or receive a single solitary call. Industries such as the:

• Oil industry.
• Mining industry.
• Chemical industry.
• Electronic industry.
• Metals industry.
• Power industry.
• Precious metals industry.
• Fabrication industry.
• Packaging industry.
• Transportation industry.
• Software industry.
• Construction industry.
• Waste industry.

My, my, my. Look at all those various industries. All of them directly involved with the manufacture, sale, use and support of a single cell phone.

That said it is now time to take a quick look at how these seemingly disparate industries all are needed to support the cell phone.

The oil industry.

Face it everything, and I do mean everything, runs on or is lubricated by oil and its other products. In the case of the cell phone you need the oil industry to provide the fuel for the transportation industry in order to get the fuel, primarily coal, to the power industry in order to generate the electricity needed for the manufacturing, steel, fabrication, packaging, software, construction, waste and chemical industries. These industries do the manufacturing of the various components utilized within a cell phone and the cells themselves, along with the towers, antennas, cables, etc. Oh, the electricity is also needed to power the cell systems. No power — no cell calls. Period.

In case there is somebody out there who is fully unaware of the mere fact that plastics are derived from petroleum — they are. Oil in other words.

The mining industry.

They are the unsung heroes of this story. They do the digging and extraction of coal for the power industry. Additionally they mine and extract the various ores for the steel industry along with the gold and silver for the precious metals industry. Further they extract the lead and antimony for — silver solder. I would be remiss if I failed to mention cement. It is rather handy to have for buildings and foundations don't you think? To put it bluntly if it were not for the miners there would be no cell phones (or many other things we take for granted).

The chemical and electronic industry.

Last time I checked cell phones had batteries, printed circuit boards, a host of other electrical and electronic components. Where do you think these real handy dandy items come from? In base form they come from the chemical industry. In turn the electronics industry converts all these various chemical compounds into batteries, resistors, capacitors, printed circuit boards and the like. No chemical industry, no electronic industry. No electronic industry, no cell phone.

The metals industry.

They convert the ores into various grades of steel, aluminum, copper, etc. Yes, I lumped the various metals industries into one generic industry. But you do in fact need them. Towers are usually made of steel. Main electrical transmission lines are made from aluminum. Power substations have a lot of electrical copper busses and lines. Cell tower antennas and RF cables have copper, aluminum and steel in their construction. Electronic components have various kinds of metals within their construction as well. Once again — no metals industry, no cell phone.

The power industry.

It is kind of handy to have electricity, don't you find? Well I sure as hell find it handy. So do any of the industries I listed in this story. Just try to produce steel, chemicals, electronics or software without electricity. It ain't gonna happ'n — Cap'n. Another minor annoyance is that no cell tower would operate without electricity. Now that would really get the green weenies lace panties in a bunch. Hence, I think it goes without saying, though I'm going to say it anyway — no electricity, no cell phone.

The precious metals industry.

Ah, gold and silver. They come in mighty important in the manufacturer of various electronic components. Though used sparingly, due to cost and rarity (which drives the cost), they are used. Because they have less resistance than other metals they are a very important conductor of electricity. How many brands of cell phones have minute quantities of either gold or silver? I don't know. Is the precious metals industry critical in the manufacturer of electronic components? Absolutely.

The fabrication industry.

They are the manufacturers of forms, assembly lines and automated processes. They make everything, all the individual components, fit into one nice, sleek looking piece of crap we call the cell phone.

Were it not for the fabrication industry cell phones would not be nearly as inexpensive as they currently are. Additionally most people would not have the infernal contraptions as they would be prohibitively expensive to all but the wealthiest of persons.

Further, this is not even discussing the cells themselves. The steel used in the cell towers are cut, drilled, primed and painted by a steel fabrication plant. Yep, no fabrication industry, no cell phone.

The packaging industry.

Just look at all those various cell phones on display at your local wireless company store. You pick one, sign the 93,000 page contract (which nobody understands) and the salesman brings out in all its glory your brand new (and worthless) toy. Packed tight in Styrofoam and various other synthetics and cardboard. All done to make sure your new toy was not damaged in anyway from the factory to the store and finally — to you.

It may sound like nothing, but packaging is important. It reduces or prevents damage to the device. Whether that damage is courtesy of the weather or a fork lift operator. Packaging counts. So I would say that yes, packaging is a critical industry in the life and well being of those blasted cell phones.

Continue to Part II.

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