Burning Wires for Metal
This is a compelling image: the pile of burning wires glows like a branding iron through the smoke from the chemical fire. This image hints at the environmental and health consequences of consumer electronics, connecting viewers with what life looks like at the end of our consumer choices.
Aurora Photos
Rights Managed
WHAT IT SHOWS: Burning of computer wire and parts to recover copper and other metals in Accra, Ghana. The computers are shipped here from Europe and the USA and some are reused but majority are dumped in Ghana. Poor workers often from the northern poorer region of Ghana do the work and sell the copper to buyers who send the copper to China or India.
Photo by
Peter Essick/Aurora Photos
Principles:
Show 'real people', not staged photo-ops
Show climate causes at scale