These posts cover social and environmental issues most relevant to ethical consumerism – from corporate ethics to climate, population, agriculture and us.
Social and environmental issues related to our food chain are covered here, including slavery, organic agriculture, and deforestation. And an homage to cooking – the most fundamental form of activism.
Controversial ingredients, from palm oil to microbeads, as well as packaging travesties, from bottled water to disposable coffee cups, are also covered here.
There are also a couple of posts on the key issue of human population growth, and how it’s tied to ethical consumerism.
There are also a few posts about how to hold it all together and keep your cool with all of the above going on – from Eckhart Tolle to mindfulness.
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This post focuses on a news special by KQED (Bay Area public television) – California’s Plastic Problem. It provides an excellent overview in 30 minutes of the challenges of plastic recycling, plastic pollution, and the carbon footprint of plastic.
The best way to reduce your domestic waste is to rearrange your kitchen a little bit – it’s that easy! Here’s what to do: Convert your main kitchen bin to a compost bin and then set up a much smaller container or bag for waste destined for landfill.
Marathon is a formulation of the neonic insecticide, imidacloprid, that’s commonly used on ornamental plants in nurseries, garden centers, and homes across the US. A 2021 University of California paper shows that the application of Marathon, even at 30% of the recommended dose, killed 90% of leafcutter bees.
Companies that make plant-based food are being harassed by meat industry groups on a regular basis. I’ll go through a few examples to underscore why it’s important to support these underdogs.
As a follow-up to my last post on the carbon footprint of data, here’s an easy action that you can take: install an ad blocker on your browser. There is a downside: many websites and content creators do rely on advertising revenue to pay the bills. So it’s your call 🙂
I quit my home Wi-Fi service from AT&T and am completely happy with that decision. Now I simply use my phone as a mobile hotspot, saving money and reducing my carbon footprint. I’ve estimated the carbon footprint of data at around 0.054 kg of CO2 per 1 GB of data. Streaming HD video is by far the largest consumer of data for most people.
We need a global fund and program to offset CO2 emissions because our current carbon budget is getting used up fast and we need more time to meaningfully reduce our emissions.
I looked at a few ways of calculating my carbon footprint and found UC Berkeley’s CoolClimate calculator to be the most useful resource. Offsetting your footprint is a useful exercise but the best place to start is to identify ways to reduce your footprint.
According to the latest IPCC report, the mean global surface temperature has already risen by 1.09°C above pre-industrial levels. Here’s a brief summary of the essential points from the IPCC’s sixth assessment report.
For Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic tourists, the carbon footprint of the short flight is roughly equivalent to a 25-year carbon footprint for the average person. The money spent on a couple of minutes above the clouds could be used to save around 100 human lives.
