Recently, on the Mediterranean island of Malta, I lay my left hand on a
multi-thousand year old megalith while holding a 2024 mobile phone in my right.
And I wondered about the people and lifestyles responsible for both.
The Megalith Builders of Malta lived approximately in 3000 BC—during the
New Stone Age— on an island 17 miles long and 9 miles wide. Since the island had no known volcanos, the
air presumably was relatively pure. The
natural environment contained mammals, such as red deer, wild boar, rodents,
and sea life, such as fish, dolphins, and seals. The fabricated environment was
created through the efforts of small family- and kin-based groups. Using stone tools, animal bones, and wood,
the inhabitants created what arguably
are among the oldest megaliths on earth, consisting of a series of large stone
blocks, some weighing several tons. They sustained themselves through farming,
herding, and fishing. In short, the world of the neolithic Maltese required its
inhabitants to know each other, work together in relative harmony, know their
natural world, and live in harmony with it, also. When times were tough, the population might
struggle, but they had reasonable control over their most basic requirements
for life and comfort.
How does this compare with the world of the mobile phone producers? Those producers live in an un-natural
environment characterized by grossly polluted land, sea, and air, due to their
own activities and senseless exploitation.
There is not a single person on earth who can lay their hand on a
completed mobile phone and take credit for having majorly fabricated it, only
for adding or subtracting some small piece.
Few 21st century humans realize that their activities are
largely implicated in causing the daily extinction of about 150 species. What risks have we lovers of mobile phones
created to our own destruction? To cite
just one area, most military experts estimate the following nuclear weapon
stockpiles: United States: Approximately 5,428 nuclear warheads, Russia:
Approximately 5,977 nuclear warheads, China: Approximately 410 nuclear
warheads, France: Approximately 290 nuclear warheads. United Kingdom:
Approximately 225 nuclear warheads. Pakistan: Approximately 165 nuclear
warheads. India: Approximately 160
nuclear warheads. Israel: Estimated to have around 90 nuclear warheads (Israel
has not officially confirmed its arsenal). North Korea: Estimated to have 40-50
nuclear warheads (estimates vary due to the secretive nature of the regime).
The destructive power of a nuclear warhead varies greatly from weapon to
weapon. Two examples are the U.S. W88 warhead, deployed on Trident II
submarine-launched ballistic missiles, with a yield of approximately 475
kilotons, and the Russian SS-18 (Satan)
ICBM with a yield of up to 750 kilotons.
For comparison, the bomb dropped
on Hiroshima, known as "Little Boy," had a yield of approximately 15
kilotons of TNT, and the one on Nagasaki, known as "Fat Man," had a
yield of approximately 21 kilotons of TNT.
Don’t take a deep
breath anywhere on planet earth to try to relax, yet. First, read my following quote from the
environmental scientists Angela Patricia Abad Lopez, et al. 2023).
Microplastics (MPs) are micro-particulate pollutants present in all environments whose ubiquity
leads humans to unavoidable exposure. … MPs-induced cytotoxicity stimulates
oxidative stress by generating free radicals that originate from ROS [Reactive
oxygen species, rare unstable oxygen-containing molecules that are created when
air pollutants trigger a chemical reaction in the respiratory tract's
epithelial lining fluid] and whose overproduction can alter cell homeostasis. Inflammatory
lesions, metabolic alterations, and increased risk of cancer are some of the
health implications caused by MPs when they encounter the interior of the body.
If you value your
mobile phone, you might pity the “primitive” neolithic Maltese megalith
builders. They had no choice but to talk
face-to-face with their contemporaries and be immediately responsible for what
they said. By default, the megalith
builders breathed unpolluted air, ate natural food, exercised merely as a
consequence of living their lives, slept under a blanket of stars, and mostly
experienced stress that was immediate and short-lived. I’m sure I would not
have enjoyed being sick on neolithic Malta, but, when I was healthy, daily life
would have conferred many salubrious benefits, provided that I could endure the
“unremitting pain” of living without a mobile phone. Whether you would prefer
the life of the megalith builders or contemporary citizens, one thing is for
sure—the biosphere undoubtedly would encourage us to choose the former. Perhaps we all would be healthier if we live
closer to, but not identical to, how the Maltese megalith builders did.
Reference
Angela Patricia Abad López,
Jorge Trilleras, Victoria A. Arana, Luz
Stella Garcia-Alzatec, and Carlos David Grande-Tova. RSC
Adv. 2023 Mar 1; 13(11): 7468–7489
