The International Affairs Association

The big story from the United Nations is about the inspectors who are in Iran for a 3-day examination of one Iran’s uranium enrichment sites. At this point, there’s not a lot to say until results come in. So until those results come in I’ll focus on something perhaps a little less critical.

The United Nations recently approved a universal mobile phone charger that will work with all types of cell phones. This step was taken in response to the fact that when most people get a new phone, they throw out the old charger. The UN says this action will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 13.6 million tons each year.

While this action was for the most part a no-brainer, I am hopeful it is a small step towards a UN based initiative to get more directly involved in the technology industries to help stop pollution. The technological age is still in its infancy, so to have an organization that can step in already and make sure the industry is environmentally sound is crucial to slowing the rate of pollution. Imagine if there had been a body in the early stages of the industrial revolution to take similar measures.

Again, this is not the biggest story in the world but I think it deserves some attention. It’s good to see the UN taking a simple and logical step in reducing pollution from a still-budding sector of the world economy.

I’ll be sure to have more once the inspection of Iran ends, until next time this is Ban Ki Croons.