(Approx. 687 words)

Earth Probe
by Berry F. Phillips, Member of the Computer Club of Oklahoma City and a regular writer for the CCOKC website and the eMonitor
bfpdata(at)1access.net
http://www.ccokc.org

"The sound of rolling thunder and the fingers of lightening lit up the blood red sky which formed a strange tapestry for the dark, ominous, and towering black mountain in the foreground. Saucer like craft with flashing lights were flying into the summit of the black mountain and disappearing.

At the summit of the mountain was a large cave and inside a top secret landing strip. The various humanoid passengers departing from the saucer crafts were being greeted by metallic security robots with scanners checking their credentials, and then escorting them to teleporters that whisked them down into an auditorium deep inside the black mountain.

" It is time to call our meeting to order. Welcome members of the Inter Galactical Federation to the revealing of the findings of our Earth Probe that has completed its mission. You may recall that we elected not to contact the Earthlings previously because they had not evolved into a higher level of consciousness necessary for membership into the Federation. They continued to remain on the lower war level. While they were making considerable technological advances, their consciousness was not advancing at the same rate. Many of us speculated their civilization would be destroyed by nuclear war. Here is information being projected on our info screens overhead on the Earth Probe findings."

There is no life left on Earth! There was no evidence of a nuclear war! There was evidence of obsolete computers and monitors all over earth! Our data bank suggests that as Earth computer sales continued to grow so did the obsolesce level of computers creating mountains and valleys all over the planet of obsolete computers and monitors.

E-Toxins and E-Waste were escalating to alarming proportions. Several organizations warned of the pending disaster. "Printed Circuit Boards contain heavy metals such as Antimony, Silver, Chromium, Zinc, Lead, Tin and Copper. According to some estimates there is hardly any other product for the sum of the environmental impacts of raw material, extraction, industrial, refining and production, use and disposal is so extensive as for printed circuit boards." CARE conference.

"in short, the product developers of electronic products are introducing chemicals on a scale which is totally incompatible with the scant knowledge of their environmental or biological characteristics." Mans Loonroth, Swedish Secretary of State.

Projections indicate that by 2006 well over 315 million computers will be obsolete in the United States alone. The following E-Toxins were released on Earth: "Cadmium compounds are classified as toxic with possible risk of irreversible effects on human health. Cadmium shows a danger of cumulative effects in the environment due to its acute and chronic toxicity. Mercury when inorganic spreads out in water, it is transformed into bottom sediments and accumulates in living organisms and concentrates through the food chain particularly via fish and can cause chronic damage to the brain. Plastics used in electronic manufacturing is polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which creates more environmental and health hazards than most other type of plastic. While some computer companies are reducing or phasing out PVC, there is still a huge volume of PVC in computer junk. Brominated Flame Retardants are a class of chemicals commonly used in electronic products as a means for reducing flammability in computers. There have been various studies that suggest this class of chemicals may have toxic effects on humans." Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

"Thank you for your attendance. I hope you will take the lessons we have learned here tonight to your respective civilizations within the Inter Galactical Federation. Let us have a moment of silence upon departure for the destruction of the human race on Earth, victims of E-Toxins and E-Waste."

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.