#1
Greetings, fellow Terran!
This is the very first edition of Greenwhile, a periodical highlighting some of the people, projects and companies concerned with one of the most complex challenges we've ever faced: how to get our shit together before the planet "shakes us off like a bad case of fleas". Kudos to the late (and great) George Carlin, by the way, for one of the best analogies ever made.
Note that I wrote "periodical", but didn't mention how frequently I'll be publishing Greenwhile. Currently, as you may have noticed from the hashtag on my profile picture, I do have a bit of time to write. Once this grasshopper life is behind me and I can get back to contributing to society like a good ant should, though, you may see fewer editions popping up on your newsfeed. Let's see how it goes.
Before I finally cut to the chase, please feel free to tag me if you spot factual articles from reliable journalists and organisations covering the environment, sustainability, the circular economy, renewables, the right to repair electronics, and all sorts of cool things that may help us getting our arses in line.
Now... shall we?
#LessElectronicWaste
You may be familiar with Fairphone, the Dutch company behind the world's most sustainable smartphone, but can you name a brand of modular, highly repairable and thin laptops?
Check out this article by Jim Salter, from Ars Technica, on the San Francisco-based startup Framework. Although their 13.5-inch laptop is yet to become available, it sure looks promising.
#LessPlasticAroundUsAndInsideUs
Yes, you did read that correctly. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past century (you lucky, lucky bastard!), there's already plastic inside you. This blessing/curse of a material has even been found in the placenta of unborn babies.
I'd suggest a glass of water to help you process such a sad development, but – yep, you've guessed it – there could be plastic in it. 😑
So what can be done about this? Well, extremely complex problems require multiple solutions. Enter Manuel Häußler, Marcel Eck, Dario Rothauer and Stefan Mecking, researchers from the University of Konstanz, Germany, who developed a bio-based polyethylene (aka the most common plastic in use today).
To find out why this newfangled plastic is significantly better than the stuff polluting our oceans, rivers, lakes and bloodstreams, read this article by Prachi Patel, in the Anthropocene.
#LessMeat
Let's wrap it up with a video because, well, not everyone is an angry man shouting at camera-toting millennials to get off his lawn.
Last Week Tonight's John Oliver tackles the meatpacking industry in a humorous and unexpected way in his latest show. And by unexpected I mean it's neither about the animal cruelty nor the "14.5 percent of all anthropogenic GHG emissions" involved in the livestock industry.
I hope it's not too late to change that pizza order to something vegetarian. 😁
Now get off my lawn!
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The first, second and third editions of Greenwhile were originally published on LinkedIn, between February and March 2021.