Most people do not have the cash to jet all the time. It seems to me that the biggest offenders are the ones who fly often, such as business travelers who could teleconference instead of flying. It doesn't really matter anyway since China (the world's biggest polluter) is not concerned with emissions except for temporary pursuits such as cleaning up for the Olympics.

Living in the inner city seems like good idea on the surface, until you consider the higher crime rate, higher pollution (cancer risk) and the fact that not everyone wants to live in an apartment.

Speaking for myself, I never asked for plastic anything. Manufacturers did this to save a buck, not because anyone necessarily liked it. Generally, I have found that many things that used to be made from metal which are now plastic is cheaper, but inferior in quality. Plastic also contains chemicals that have been suspected of leaching into our food. I would welcome its demise.

As far as the electrical devices go, great idea. It helps everyone.

On cell phones etc, mfrs. need to find other materials to use in their products, and/or recycling needs to be as easy as possible to promote the masses to adopt it as a lifestyle.

Biased and shortsighted claims about the unfounded "dangers" of plastics only add to the overall confusion and further endanger the environment.

Making a full comparison of the Energy consumed and Pollution generated throughout the Total Life Cycle of Plastics, versus other materials traditionally used in everyday life, will clearly demonstrate the many advantages of plastics.
Steel, Copper, Aluminum, Zinc, Wood, Glass, Paints, etc. require substantially more energy to produce and emit substantially more toxins than the vast majority of plastics.
Every material has its advantages and we need to know how to use each of them and handle each of them properly.
When you are building a House, you want it to be DURABLE and not require extensive or complicated maintenance procedures that in turn require more labor and often also the use of dangerous chemicals.
VINYL SIDING is NOT toxic; and the fact that it does not biodegrade is actually its main advantage. (You do not want your house to biodegrade under your nose; you want it to be durable).
Vinyl is 100% recyclable, so when you are bored with the looks of your house and you want to remove the vinyl siding, you just need to pick it up and recycle it; and not through it away carelessly, because it will not biodegrade and "disappear" by itself.
You do not leave food leftovers laying around your house, just because they are biodegradable, and wait patiently for them to "disappear" by themselves.
You pick them up and leave the place clean.
Planet Earth is our HOME. The fact that we as humans have been lousy caretakers of our HOME (Planet Earth) does not mean that plastics are toxic.
Just leave some good old-fashioned biodegradable food around your house for a week and you will see what happens to the environment inside your house…

The correct use and handling of plastics is probably one of the most beneficial factors in helping us to take care of our environment.

Mario Bautista (SiMBA)
Houston, Texas, USA

A lot of cell phones are working just fine, but the Carriers typically do not want you to bring your previous carrier's phone with you. Otherwise they could not reprogram it to their tastes.

Hopefully the Google Android phone and platforms like OpenMoko will allow your phone to be much more portable between cell phone providers, make it less likely you will have to toss your old phone.

Why is popsci and the entire media going overboard with this carbon pollution hysteria? We ourselves contain carbon about 16 kg per person to be exact. Does this mean that we are polluting the environment just be being alive? The entire human population of about 6.6 billion people must contain about 105.6 million metric tons of environment polluting carbon. I’m just waiting for someone to suggest a mass genocide to rid our planet of all the polluting carbon residing in human beings.

Hey al gore, you know what really ticks me off... Your suv. What are you going to do about the polar bears while you have your own personal jet and have a gas guzzler. That's the inconvenient truth.

Ps nice comment about co2 per person

Yeah I bet you think the stone age was very eco-friendly. Where do you think you find these "toxins" that we are putting "back into the enviroment"? FROM the enviroment. That mercury, guess what. IT CAME FROM SOMEWHERE. SOMEWHERE IN EARTH's ENVIROMENT. I hope you use that time machine that the guy just built to make a permanent visit to the stone age. Your concerned about emissions from a LAWNMOWER? Is this article serious? FROM A LAWNMOWER!!!!!! EMISSIONS FROM A LAWNMOWER?

WAKE UP.

Official member of the anti church of envirolunacy of global warming and official member of the "the sun has more do do with changing the weather then us... uh hello" Have you ever seen "the great global warming swindle?" I know you see it every day but see the online video.