In regards to Congo - short of an invasion or international sanctions likely nothing can be done. No one in the 'west' is buying Congo cobalt. But that just leaves China to buy it all on the cheap. And they do it without reservations. China is still on track to open a Lithium mine in Congo. Likely because they could get away with less environmental oversight. Companies could do better on more sustainable products. But that would affect their bottom line. And are more than willing to impose repair restrictions to protect their bottom line. One can only try to choose/promote a more sustainable product.
Quite the clickbait title, Linus does understand and admit that the tech industry as a whole has an issue with consumerism. But he has always put value on re-using old stuff and has himself invested either time (in terms of coverage) or money in companies like framework that work to reduce e waste and provide consumers with options and control of their purchases.
Where Linus comes in and has come in and the videos that caused the whole "Linus is causing issues in the Congo" is regarding the tech reviews he does as somehow he gets blamed for people choosing to buy stuff?!
I think there's an important distinction to be made here.
People will ALWAYS buy stuff, but thanks to Linus and other tech reviewers they will make an informed purchasing decision.
I don't need to point this out but Linus is also a major advocate for right to repair and works with ifixit continuously, in terms of good deeds Linus is one of the top tech reviewers when it comes to trying to not mess the world up more than it is and just the fact that he was so thoughtful in his response shows that we should cut him some slack and maybe write an honest headline that might get a few less clicks but at least doesn't potentially lead to death threats being sent to him by uninformed morons who form their opinions based on headlines from outlets who cant be bothered to be honest with their readers right from the start.
More disposable tech is definitely a problem, but to tackle any issue one must first actually understand the issue.
For one, there are no lithium mines in the congo. They do have some lithium reserves, like pretty much every country, but it has so far not been tapped.
TH, the Elon Musks are going to pick on topics like sustainability when enough people talk about them. It just needs to be an area of increasing attention in consumerism. So many tech sites will do a single feature on the topic, but otherwise promote or excuse disposable tech. Thank you to all the sites and people that try harder.
I don't think the critique of Chromebooks is fully justified, btw. They are supported for ten years, and offer a streamlined experience that means less is likely to go wrong. I think what would be most helpful is if vendors would come out with less product lines, and equipped them properly. Lenovo is especially bad for this. They should offer fewer product lines, with better support for the smaller set of products. While I admire Framework, I'm not convinced upgradability is that big a factor, except for upgrading storage. You still have the same quantity of e-waste if you upgrade parts, and it makes for a bulkier more failure-prone system. I don't think parts fail that often, and it's usually possible to get a system with enough RAM with a bit of care, but it can be hard to predict how much storage will be needed up front.
Personal responsibility is a dramatic overstatement for the suffering that goes on in the Congo.
If Linus did not exist, then there would be absolutely no effect for good or for ill on what goes on there.
Each of us has very little to no power to change the world around us individually. In fact if all of Linus' audience collectively got together and pooled all of their resources, it would still amount to very little power to change the facts on the ground.
You have to get to the scale of people like Elon Musk to really make an impact.
What this desire to point fingers and blame represents is the fact that individuals like us are very uncomfortable with results of our world and we look to assign blame.
I have no solutions, because the problems are bigger than us and just about everything I would propose would hurt someone unintentionally.
Left to me every flagship will have to come out every two years thus manufacturers will concentrate more on the product and in lieu reduce the impact on the environment too.
Linus of Linus Tech Tips admitted today that he bears some personal responsibility for the exploitation of Congolese children in cobalt and lithium mines. He made the statement in his latest video podcast by partially agreeing with an English teacher's accusation of having "blood on his hands" and then asking how these critics would do better in his situation.
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