Electronics companies are starting to develop more energy efficient products, with high costs now on the agenda for not only business managers but also consumers. With the world’s focus now on saving and recycling, electronics firms are now promoting eco efficient products and unfurling the ‘green’ banner more than ever before.

Dell Australia’s latest desktop, the Studio Hybrid, uses up to 70% less power than most typical desktops, whilst you can also purchase it with a rather fetching bamboo cover. Whilst there is no standard way of measuring companies recycling programs, Dell has proposed a seven year product lifetime. This will allow companies to measure the percentage of the total weight recycled each year compared against the total weight of what you sold seven years earlier.

Apple Mac Australia has promised to remove any toxic chemicals from their hardware, while also replacing screens lit by conventional fluorescent lamps with LED displays. Green insiders expect these screens to account for up to half of all notebook panels in 2010, with all laptop displays being LED by 2015.

Analyst Jeff Kim said-

‘LED saves up to 40 per cent of the power used in traditional backlights. Next year they will be commonly found in as notebook screens, and will be increasingly used in TV panels from 2010.’

Apple currently operate recycling programs in more than three quarters of the countries where Macs and iPods are sold, and by 2010 Apple plan to be recycling 19million pounds of wastage per year — nearly 30% of the product weight they sold seven years earlier.

Previous energy-efficient products used to come with a heavy price tag. Now green consumers will pay a little extra for electronics that use less energy, it seems that makers are also doing their bit to help the environment via long term solutions.

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Amnesty International’s latest report claim that Chinese authorities have broken their promise to improve the country’s human rights, betraying the very core values the Olympics stand for. ‘The Olympics Countdown: Broken Promises’ evaluates the performance of the Chinese authorities in four key areas related to the values of the Olympics –

• persecution of human rights activists
• detention without trial
• censorship
• the death penalty

Amnesty International Australia concludes that China still has a continuing deterioration in all the above human rights in the run-up to the Olympics, with authorities locking up and forcibly removing individuals they perceive may threaten their image of national harmony. Amnesty has also released their viral film ‘False Start’, which highlights the persecution of people who speak up for human rights in China.

Amnesty International believes journalists working on human rights issues in China are at risk of abuse during the Games, with activist Hu Jia currently serving a three-and-a-half year sentence for ‘inciting subversion’. Hu Jia is now suffering from Hepatitis B in prison as authorities have prevented his family from providing him with medicine.

The Chinese authorities have extended the use of punitive detention to ensure activists stay out of sight during the Games, with many being held in prisons across China. Others known activists are under house arrest and are being tightly monitored by police to ensure they will not disrupt the Olympics.

Amnesty International UK Campaigns Director, Tim Hancock, said -

‘The Chinese authorities have broken the promises they made when they were granted the Olympics seven years ago. They told the world that the Olympics would help bring human rights to China, but the government continues to persecute and punish those who speak out for human rights ahead of the Games. The Olympic values have been betrayed by the Chinese government. They must release all imprisoned peaceful activists, allow foreign and national journalists to report freely and make further progress towards the elimination of the death penalty – or risk permanently sullying the legacy of the Olympics.’

> > click here to help Amnesty International Australia

> > click here to read about Amnesty International UK

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