Sure, you probably need the newest iPhone for some reason or another, but have you considered whether or not your smart phone is Fair Trade?

They seem harmless enough, if not downright necessary. Can you even name one person you know who doesn’t own a smart phone? They’re more prevalent than landlines ever were. Can you remember when payphone booths were like, things on streets people actually used? We’re such a savvy future culture these day. If only we were civilized, too.

Today’s communications happen via smart phone technology—be they texts, Tweets, Snapchats instant messaging, or yes, even the occasional phone call (kids, ask your parents). But at what cost?

According to The Conversation, mobile phones contain “rare minerals that are often linked with violent conflicts, and many of them are produced in “difficult conditions by low-paid factory workers.” Kinda ruins the mood for a selfie just a little bit. “Part of the problem is that we really feel like we have no choice but to buy a phone.” The Conversation asks, “Can we realistically expect to ‘go without’ a phone, when our work, family and friends expect us to be available at all times? And when our carrier invites us to upgrade our phone for next to nothing every two years, what incentive do we have to slow down?”

We may no longer have the option of foregoing smart phones altogether, but we can opt for a smarter phone, like the Fairphone, which has emphasized its production process as its sole marketing strategy.

While not yet available in the U.S., Fairphone is picking up momentum in Europe. The first production run sold out completely (a meager 25,000 of the 1.7 billion phones sold last year, but it’s a step in the right direction). And the company is excited by the potential. The trend has even caught on a bit with Motorola and it’s “Ara” phone, “their attempt to provide a less destructive alternative,”  notes The Conversation. “The Ara phone is modular, meaning that people can use 3D printers from their homes to replace core technological components as needed and switch aesthetic parts such as the housing at leisure.”

Technology is moving our communication devices forward by leaps and bounds. It’s only a matter of time before our ethics catch up and impractical, wasteful smart phone devices go the way of phone booths too.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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Images via gizmag

The post Smart Phones are Fair Phones: Fair Trade Ethics Coming to Mobile Devices appeared first on EcoSalon.

Ah, there’s nothing like getting out into nature with nothing else but…your iPhone…

Welcome to the Modern World where to be smart phone-less is to be, well…unmodern. We use our devices for everything: maps, weather and traffic checks, finding great food, entertainment, and even, a little bit of the way the world was before we dug it all up and covered it with concrete.

Yes, the iPhone is good for more than just connecting you with a bunch of Angry Birds…how about letting it connect you with just plain old actual birds?

Meet Indeterminate Hikes+ a smart phone app created by professors at the University of Rochester in New York. The goal is to help us change our views of urban nature while helping users to better understand the way cities have evolved.

Cary Peppermint and Leila Nadir co-founded EcoArtTech, which focuses on bridging technology and environmentalism. The duo work with other artists and organizations, reports Utne, and Indeterminate Hikes+ is the latest offering from the collaboration.

IH+ works with Google Maps creating hiking paths in urban areas. Once downloaded to your smart phone, you enter in your target start and end locations. The app then generates “random” path routes that include a variety of activities focused on honing the user into nature along the way. “The prompts increase awareness of the environment where you live and also cause social interactions—you’re using the technology to reconnect with space instead of people,” according to Peppermint.

“Wilderness is all around you and the app encourages users to give the same attention to inner city parks and rain gutters that we do to landscapes like canyons and gorges,” said Nadir. The hikes are designed for groups of two or more (although you can certainly do one alone) and there are prompts from the app as well, encouraging users to take pictures at key spots (of environmental or historical significance). You may be asked to write a field note and perform other “socially interactive” tasks to enrich the walk and better observe nature.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: D’La Crux

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