Cellphones or Gorillas?DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO -- The 100 to 130 surviving Grauer's gorillas (Gorilla berebgei graueri) in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, are facing extinction because of growing demand for cellphones. The critical cellphone (CELLular telePHONE) The first ubiquitous wireless telephone. Originally analog, all new cellular systems are digital, which has enabled the cellphone to turn into a smartphone that has access to the Internet. capacitors are made from the mineral colombo tantalite tan·ta·lite n. A black to red-brown mineral, (Fe,Mn)(Ta,Nb)2O6, distinguished from columbite by the predominance of tantalum over niobium and used as an ore of both elements. (coltan Noun 1. coltan - a valuable black mineral combining niobite and tantalite; used in cell phones and computer chips columbite-tantalite mineral - solid homogeneous inorganic substances occurring in nature having a definite chemical composition ) and one of two known deposits of the mineral lies inside the park. The demand for 500 million new cellphones in 2001 has driven up the cost of coltan to the point that smugglers are now building illegal airstrips in the forests to spirit the coltan to foreign buyers. The Kahuzi-Biega Park, a United Nations World Heritage Site, is occupied by the invading armies of Rwanda and Uganda. Uganda has acted to protect the park; Rwanda has allowed thousands of miners to pillage PILLAGE. The taking by violence of private property by a victorious army from the citizens or subjects of the enemy. This, in modern times, is seldom allowed, and then, only when authorized by the commander or chief officer, at the place where the pillage is committed. the park, slaughtering wild monkeys and antelope for food. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion