Climate Echoes
Introduction
I've been thinking a lot about climate lately and our impacts on it, which as you will see below is quite the theme of this edition. Every thing we choose to do each day has an impact on the environment, from how you commute to work to what you eat, what we echoes out into the world, even if we can't hear the echoes ourselves.
I personally have been trying to be more mindful of these silent echoes, even if I don't act upon fixing them immediately, being aware of my impact is the first step of acting though. I only eat meat three or four times a week, I work from home for the foreseeable future, and I occasionally donate to carbon offset charities. And yet I blast the AC in the hot Texas summers, I drive to the gym (which is only a mile away from me) instead of running, walking or biking, and I use paper towels like a maniac.
As a human in the 21st century, especially in a first world country, we have the privilege of living a life of luxury few of our ancestors could afford, and we should be grateful for that. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be mindful of our impacts on the Earth and do what we can do to mitigate or even reverse it. From our daily habits, to what we buy, and who we vote for we can do what it takes to keep up our standards of living without damaging our own world. I firmly believe we have what it takes to make this world a greener place.
p.s. I promise not all of these newsletters will be this depressing, it's just that when I was getting the links together for this edition I realized that a lot of them dealt with climate change. Next edition should be a bit more light compared to this one.
Project Updates
From the Webb
The Suburban Glow [234 Words] - Inspired by a picture prompt in a writing group I'm a part of, The Suburban Glow is a reflection on the light pollution from our cities along with our insignificance in the universe. Not that cheerful, but hey that's just where my brain was when when I wrote this short story. ¯\(ツ)/¯
From the Lab
Two Year of Experiments (Episode 56) - I can't believe it's been two years already of trailing different productivity methods, "life hacks", and book reviews. I have picked up some serious habits from doing this show that have changed my life for the better. Check out this episode to see which habits and books stuck with Mark and I, and which ones didn't. You can also listen to our last years recap as well here.
Recommendations
Books
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates - The recent news from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been getting me down and it's alright to feel concerned or even anxious about the future of the climate, but there's still hope. In How to Avoid a Climate Disaster Bill Gates (yes that Bill Gates) talks about what we can do to save the climate through innovative technology, policy and what you can do today to avoid a climate disaster.
Random Quote:
Videos
How We Fix the Climate - As you can tell the climate is on my mind this week. Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers and SciShow fame recently published a video on what we can do to stay informed and how we can move forward to reducing green house gases. He also published a follow up video on his personal channel for American specific policies and a brief summary about the good news and bad news in the IPCC report over on SciShow.
Charities
Cool Earth - A carbon offset charity dedicated to conserving the rain forests of the world. I've been donating to them on and off again since around 2015.