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Produced and hosted by Jon Gordon, Future Tense brings you the latest technology topics in daily five-minute capsules. From electronic privacy and digital democracy to spam and computer worms, Future Tense keeps you up to date on the rapidly changing world of technology.
Future Tense is heard in the United States during broadcasts of the CBC's As It Happens.
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Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology plan to electronically track thousands of pieces of trash discarded by people in Seattle and New York, in part to give people a greater sense of their impact on the environment.
Environmental activists and more than two dozen recycling companies have created a certification program designed to curtail the export and improper disposal of toxic electronic waste.
e-Stewards is an independently-audited program in which certified recyclers promise that computers, monitors cell phones and other e-waste will not be dumped in local landfills, exported to foreign countries, or handled by prison labor.
Guest: Jim Puckett, Basel Acton Network
This Sunday's 60 Minutes exposes what looks like a ghastly e-waste dismantling facility in Guiyu, China. Thugs overseeing the dump jumped Scott Pelley and his crew, but the newsies managed to get out with their cameras.
The Chinese attackers were trying to protect a lucrative business of mining the e-waste-junked computers, televisions and other old electronic products-for valuable components, including gold. "They're afraid of being found out. This is smuggling. This is illegal," says Jim Puckett, founder of the Basel Action Network, a group working to stop the dumping of toxic materials in poor countries that certifies ethical e-waste recyclers in the United States. "A lot of people are turning a blind eye here. And if somebody makes enough noise, they're afraid this is all going to dry up."
