Let's be a little smart about this.

In this day and age conservation is all the buzz. Biodegradable diapers, organic this or that, ethanol fuel, green house gases, and so on and so forth.

In all of Al Gore's pontificating, I have never heard him say anything about the very thing he carries in his pocket, his cell phone, his ipod, and even his Nintendo Wii [I know that doesn't fit in his pocket, but you see where I am going].

There isn't a single public figure talking about how toxic all these products are to our environment around us.

The ability to want to talk to people while on the go is not going anywhere. We have been taking music with us since we started putting radios in a car, then making the walkman, then discman, the mini disc players, and now the latest incarnate of portable music is the ipod. All of these things we carry around are using the fossil fuels we also want to use. The focus on the use of petroleum is focused on fuel consumption. Well more petroleum is used to make plastics and batteries than is used to make gasoline.

What should we do?

Well back when I was interviewed by TangoBaby, [I am typing on my blackberry so how to put in a link escapes me] I mentioned that people don't use technology to its fullest.

People carry a paper daily planner, their address book, an ipod, and more than likely a cellphone. 2 of these things are heavy paper products and 2 use toxic batteries.

Last night I had a comment war on FaceBook. A friend of mine said in a status message, I need an ipod.......
I just sold this person a BlackBerry Storm. I told her, why waste money on an ipod? She could do everyhing an ipod could do, plus some. She said, that the phone was more than she could handle, "it is more technology than she needs". So her answer to that was to buy more one dimensional technology to service 1 need.

The average consumer is a short sighted thing. They think of a need, and look for 1 product that can service their need.

The average cell phone salesman is a short sighted person as well. When a customer walks in, most sales reps will meet the need that a customer says they have to meet. Most often the customer will tell us, I just need to text, and make calls. They aren't looking for a phone that can house their music collection, or manage their day, or even get their e-mail.

But then again customers, especially the tree huggers, only realize the crime in their convictions when someone points out all the contradictions. An inconvenient truth won an oscar for the best documentary. Conservationists hailed it as a win for the cause. Too bad the movie is about Al Gore's failed attempts at being president. Or that most artists and college students love apple and also are the biggest proponents of the green movement. How do those go hand in hand? Apple makes a whole lot of 1 dimensional and toxic products. An ipod, a macbook, and iphone. Sure they all integrate with eachother, but I want it all to be integrated with everything. A simple smartphone can take everything and put it in your hand.

Apple's smartphone can do a lot of that, but getting that phone to work with my PC is harder than it should be. Apple's mantra is that there is an app for that. What if one wanted to commit double homicide? Is there an app for that? I bet there is a killer app for that!

The advent of internet radio several years ago was ahead of its time. Internet Radio has now evolved into being something useful. People are accessing the internet on the go. They want music with them. Enter Pandora, Slacker Radio, and Iheartradio. 3 great applications one can get on any smartphone now.

So before you go pick out your new cell phone, think about everything you do on a daily basis, and figure out how it could be integrated into your technology. Step 1, get rid of your alarm clock. Use your cellphone. Keep going.

By eliminating several plastic products, and only getting 1 plastic product that can take the place of all the others is the conservation we need. We don't need a bloated, bearded closet homo telling us what is good or bad. His energy bills at his home are the equivalent of powering my block.