Local and Global Energy Expenditure on Finding a Stolen I-Phone
December 14, 2014 5:09 PM Subscribe
My I-Phone was stolen last night. I have the "Find I-Phone" app and know where it is right down to the address. The phone is 3 years old and outside of a cracked front it works well.
My question is this. As I debated whether to file a police report or just let the phone go and purchase a new one, I wondered what would require the most energy expenditure. Filing a police report would require 2-3 days of bureaucratic processing, the officers being sent out to a known address, processing of the perp if needed, etc. Or just throwing the phone away and getting a new one. On a local level it seems the throwaway would be the best option. Would that hold on a global level i.e. carbon footprint?
Would appreciate MeFi feedback.
P.S. I did file a police report.
My question is this. As I debated whether to file a police report or just let the phone go and purchase a new one, I wondered what would require the most energy expenditure. Filing a police report would require 2-3 days of bureaucratic processing, the officers being sent out to a known address, processing of the perp if needed, etc. Or just throwing the phone away and getting a new one. On a local level it seems the throwaway would be the best option. Would that hold on a global level i.e. carbon footprint?
Would appreciate MeFi feedback.
P.S. I did file a police report.
Best answer: While I'm all for considering the environmental impacts of our actions, trying to micromanage your day-to-day activities on that basis alone would lead to madness. There's a difference between everybody doing simple things to help, like turning the lights off in unoccupied rooms, and second guessing every decision based on a vague notion of carbon footprint.
The catch is that the police are more-or-less static resources. If they aren't dealing with your case, they are doing something else. Whether you reported or not, the computers that store the police reports will still be turned on, officers will still be driving around town, the lights will still be on at central booking, and the station coffeepot will still be warming up bad coffee. None of that infrastructure is spun up simply to deal with your report; the police don't hibernate until a crime is committed.
In any case, police in many cities aren't particularly helpful in such situations. If it makes you feel better, odds are pretty darn good that more carbon is emitted making and shipping a new iPhone than in filing a police report. There's a fair chance you might be doing both soon enough.
posted by zachlipton at 5:29 PM on December 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
The catch is that the police are more-or-less static resources. If they aren't dealing with your case, they are doing something else. Whether you reported or not, the computers that store the police reports will still be turned on, officers will still be driving around town, the lights will still be on at central booking, and the station coffeepot will still be warming up bad coffee. None of that infrastructure is spun up simply to deal with your report; the police don't hibernate until a crime is committed.
In any case, police in many cities aren't particularly helpful in such situations. If it makes you feel better, odds are pretty darn good that more carbon is emitted making and shipping a new iPhone than in filing a police report. There's a fair chance you might be doing both soon enough.
posted by zachlipton at 5:29 PM on December 14, 2014 [4 favorites]
This is one of those questions that is surprisingly complex and nuanced, difficult to answer, and of little practical use. Both impacts are marginal. It is better to purchase fewer products and it is better to not engage government resources but if you really want to help, think about how to allocate your own resources (time, money, energy) to the places they are most effective. Spend this mental energy on writing a letter to an elected official asking them to priotize climate change action.
posted by PercussivePaul at 7:00 PM on December 14, 2014
posted by PercussivePaul at 7:00 PM on December 14, 2014
I too have had someone show up at my door saying that their lost iphone was somehow inside my house (going so far as to point towards the room they thought it was in. Seeing as I live alone, had no guests recently, and don't steal iphones, I told them they were wrong (and no, you can't come in and look around just to be sure, fuck off). They probably still think I stole their iphone.
posted by ryanrs at 7:32 PM on December 14, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by ryanrs at 7:32 PM on December 14, 2014 [2 favorites]
You could always buy a used phone from someone; the climate impacts of manufacturing would have already happened. That's probably the best choice from an environmental perspective (even if it's shipped from elsewhere, and not local, since shipping is really a drop in the bucket compared to the manufacturing process).
posted by three_red_balloons at 8:04 PM on December 14, 2014
posted by three_red_balloons at 8:04 PM on December 14, 2014
Just as a counterpoint I have found the find my iPhone app to be incredibly useful and accurate down to the parking space in the parking lot where my phone was under the driver seat.
Filing a police report isn't going to do a damn thing, though.
posted by pintapicasso at 8:35 PM on December 14, 2014
Filing a police report isn't going to do a damn thing, though.
posted by pintapicasso at 8:35 PM on December 14, 2014
iPhone uses Assisted GPS, which uses nearby Wifi access points with more-or-less known locations, cell-tower triangulation, and, to a much smaller degree than you might be inclined to think, Global Positioning Satellites above. It's hit and miss, and the complicating factors include the walls, roofs, metal objects, and anything else that partially or completely shields radio signals; also, any nearby source of interference. You'll get a better fix if the phone is outside, and of course if it goes on the move, its behavior will tell you about the person carrying it.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:15 PM on December 14, 2014
posted by Sunburnt at 10:15 PM on December 14, 2014
The most carbon friendly course of action is to report to the cops where it is, since if (big if) they catch the thief, it will prevent the turnover of all the other devices that thief would have stolen in the next few weeks/months/years.
posted by benzenedream at 10:58 PM on December 14, 2014
posted by benzenedream at 10:58 PM on December 14, 2014
Best answer: If you aren't going to go get it back or file a report, the best thing to do environment wise would be to delete it from your Icloud account by hitting wipe and then remove on find my iphone. Barring some very sketchy sites that claim to work, and cost over a hundred bucks, you can't ever activate again or use in any real way an iphone declared lost on find my iphone or restored and not logged in by you.
If you delete it, at least someone can use it again. If you're going to write it off, and ate concerned about e-waste, do that.
A used iPhone 5c can be had for like $180 now by the way. And it's probably nicer than what you had by quite a bit.
Personally i'd call the cops and show up at that location. But I despise thieves, and have also sucessfully recovered my moms phone from a pickpocket that way.(the cops actually refused to help, or even show up to take a report in any reasonable amount of time. We waited like 5 hours then just got in my car)
posted by emptythought at 11:35 PM on December 14, 2014
If you delete it, at least someone can use it again. If you're going to write it off, and ate concerned about e-waste, do that.
A used iPhone 5c can be had for like $180 now by the way. And it's probably nicer than what you had by quite a bit.
Personally i'd call the cops and show up at that location. But I despise thieves, and have also sucessfully recovered my moms phone from a pickpocket that way.(the cops actually refused to help, or even show up to take a report in any reasonable amount of time. We waited like 5 hours then just got in my car)
posted by emptythought at 11:35 PM on December 14, 2014
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posted by artychoke at 5:23 PM on December 14, 2014 [1 favorite]