BANGALORE, INDIA: A couple of days back, while attending a green initiative by International Indian Film Academy in Gurgaon near Delhi, evergreen superstar of Bollywood Amithabh Bachchan made a startling remark, "To go green you should get rid of the mobile phone that you are using!"

And this statement assumes greater significance in today's tech-driven world, where gadgets are becoming style statements; at times even becoming kind of an extension of the human body.

Fascination for gadgets is a lifestyle disease, observed a friend recently – with our over-dependence on things like mobile phones to the tendency to have the latest gadget in hand. But how many of us are aware that we are contributing to the disaster of Mother Earth? It is time to think how dangerous is this 'blissful ignorance' and the environmental hazards thereof.

According to the US Environmental protection agency, a gallon (around 3.8 litres) of gasoline has 131 MJ of energy and emits 8.8 kg of CO2. Based on this, if we calculate the energy consumption to manufacture a mobile phone, it would come to 1390 MJ of energy and produces 60 kg of CO2 emissions, says a blog post in fatknowledge.blogspot.com. Likewise, a computer and monitor take 6400 MJ to manufacture, or 4.6 times as much as a mobile phone.

According to another report published on www.lowcarboneconomy.com, carbon emissions from personal gadgets such as mp3 players and electronic devices including televisions and mobile phones will rise drastically over the next 20 years. The report, quoting a study by France's International Energy Association (IEA), says their energy-use would triple between now and 2030. So you understand from where all the bullets pierce the fragile ozone layer!

The IEA pointed out that over half of the world's population now has a mobile phone and forecast that the number of people using a personal computer will surpass one billion in 2009. If we fail to adopt new policies, the energy consumed by such devices will rise to 1,700 TW hours by 2030, significantly undermining global emissions reduction efforts, it warns.

According to the IEA estimates, by 2010, there will be over 3.5 billion mobile phone subscribers and two billion televisions in use around the world.

It is this awareness about the environmental hazard prompted Ericsson and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to partner to encourage the use of climate-smart telecom solutions across industries to reduce global CO2 emissions.

According to a recent study by Gartner and WWF, the ICT industry has been slow to embrace the low-carbon economy, and is missing out on opportunities. The ICT industry is responsible for approximately 2 per cent of global CO2 emissions.

From gadget to mail

Another interesting aspect is related to the carbon footprints of the spam mails. A McAfee study says that the mere act of people around the world deleting spam and searching for legitimate e-mail falsely labeled as junk creates the annual energy consumption equivalent in the U.S. of 2.4 million homes using electricity, with the same GHG emissions as 3.1 million passenger cars using 2 billion gallons of gasoline.

The average greenhouse gas emission associated with one spam message is 0.3 grams of CO2, about the same as driving three feet in equivalent emissions. When multiplied by the 62 trillion spam e-mails sent globally, that is like driving around the Earth 1.6 million times! So just think how 'green' is your inbox.

Even the storage of emails contributes to this environmental hazard, warns writer and environmental activist Sami Grover. Data retained means storage space used, and storage space used means energy consumed and this means nothing but carbon emission!

And our drawing room is also not that green either. An average television or computer running for 8 hours per day generates 618 lbs of CO2 annually. And for a laptop this is 77 lbs.

Dangerously e-wasting!

The concept of long lasting is a passé for the modern-day man, who is turning away from the earthly feelings. We have no prick of conscience in changing the gadgets like soiled clothes! But again we feign ignorance about one thing – our contribution to the e-waste. The problem of e-waste management warrants greater attention. Unlike the organic waste, the e-waste doesn't decompose and the hazards thereof are beyond our imagination.

And the developing countries are falling victims to this e-waste threat. According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), up to 50 million tonnes of waste from discarded electronic goods is generated annually, with the majority being shipped from the West to developing nations.

PC maker Dell had recently announced that it had taken a strong stand against this e-waste export. Nokia's recycling programme is also worth mentioning here. Also UNEP, which initiated the World Environment Day Campaign, has launched a Twitter account to spread awareness about the envirnmental hazards.

And, interestingly, though we are all concerned about the 'R-word' that made the world economy make a nosedive, statistics show a shade of 'green' in the environmental front. A study from America says that ever since the global economic meltdown began, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. declined by 2.8 percent in 2008. The Energy Information Administration flash estimates this is the largest annual drop since the U.S. government began recording the data in 1990.

So is it that we should say a 'green' cheers to the economic meltdown that saves Mother Earth from the dangerous global warming?