Article: "The self-imposed rules of the challenge are simple: participants pledge to stop buying non-essential items, be they unneeded shoes, additional beauty products or other impulse buys for a set amount of time, usually 12 months. " #consumerism#climate#sustainability
@ai6yr I haven't quite made a 'no buy year' pledge, but I have made a 'buy it used' pledge that I try to live by. I will always try to buy it used and repair before buying something new.
Switching to renewable energy could save trillions - study
New report says falling cost of renewable energy makes switch from fossil fuels cheapest option.
Mmm, snake meat. As a protein source it's even more efficient than harvesting crickets!
I suppose MAYBE ... conceivably ... a factory farm swarming with hundreds of thousands of pythons could pose some risk to the neighborhood. But: say bye-bye to your rat problem.
Credit to @clive 's latest Linkfest. I always learn something.
These U.S. Cities Have More Parking Lots Than Housing - They paved paradise again and again and again.
by Frank Jacobs, Big Think May 17, 2024
"...On average, about one-fifth of all land in city centers is dedicated to parking. But what’s the actual harm being done by all that parking space? For one, city centers that are more “parkable” become less walkable. In other words, fewer things are casually accessible.
...Americans’ attitude toward driving is changing. The share of high school seniors with a driving license has dropped from 85.3% in 1996 to 71.5% in 2015. The rise of shared, multi-modal, and (soon, they keep promising us) autonomous mobility will further reduce the need for driver’s licenses, individual cars, and massive parking facilities in city centers.
Perhaps it’s time for American cities to become denser, more lived-in, more walkable—and less “parkable.”
People seem to be having a hard time getting away from the idea of centralized power supplies in favor of networked dispersed power from local rooftops and such. I don't know why. You'd think people and towns would be tired of being fleeced by for-profit providers and unreliable out-of-town or out-of-state owners who defer maintenance until a crisis is reached...
@shekinahcancook@ai6yr It's something I find quite strange. In the UK domestic solar panels are VAT (tax) free and the surplus electricity can be fed back to the grid for useful money-you can even get them from Costco*. Yet there are still very few around. And public/commercial buildings have acres of space doing nothing that could be used to replace expensive electricity. Surely some of them could afford the upfront investment.
*Ours being installed in a couple of weeks 😀.
Growth or Scale? By Tom Murphy, originally published by Do the Math May 22, 2024
"...It’s not too hard to lay hands on records of global resource use. One publication I ran across has some useful graphs for a few raw materials in common use. The first graph shows annual extraction of copper, zinc, and lead since 1900, usefully...
...From 1960 to 2005, in no region of the world did annual production of timber moderate alongside growth. The total global activity almost doubled (77% increase) over this interval rather than stagnating or tumbling by a factor of two as growth did.
The result for all of these resources is clear: scale is a more apt correlate than growth. The curves bear a family resemblance to the hockey-stick scale curves: far less resemblance to the peaking growth curves. A confounder in this is that per-capita resource extraction has also risen for many materials, in association with economic growth..."
The thing with exponentials: once the hockey-stick bend in the curve is crossed, everything changes and all bets are off. The more a thing happens, the more it happens.
Humans have crossed the hockey-stick bend in so many exponential processes that the bad shit happening right now is just a foreshadowing of how bad its going to get very quickly.
I'm inclined to agree that adapt in place for the coming sh!t conditions is pretty much where we are now. There will not be resources to continue the internet or computing as we know it, for example. Re-learn manual skills.
Factory farm crop failures and corporate run food shortages are coming, too.
If people can move away from the coasts and desert southwest they should - now, while their home still has some value.
Those of us in other places should prepare to have to take in our friends & family who will be displaced or lose their jobs - probably permanently, since with republicans in charge there will be no actual mitigation or benefits for the displaced.
We will have internal climate refugees, millions of them. There will not be housing, or welfare, medical care, or jobs for them. The MAGA crowd thinks letting society collapse will bring about their end times delusional fantasies about killing off all non-christians (and not approved christians).
Issued today. "There is a need for international coordination to foster transparency, clarity and consistency of relevant policies and regulations, ... to effectively address and promote the safety and #sustainability of #space activities."
@richard Agreed. It seems sort of one-sided, which is why I mentioned Artemis. OST signatories have recently breached the treaty, indicating that they won't be bound by it any airtight manner. And I'm afraid that we're looking at outright acts of war in space sooner rather than later (and nothing can stop that now).
Interesting article, but with some issues (carbon fibre cargo bikes may exist, but I have never encountered one). Clearly a subject that needs more research, esp. on systemic impacts: ebikes are known to actually replace car use.
An important thing to tackle would be regulation for standards and interoperability, especially with eBike systems. https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/02/can-we-make-bicycles-sustainable-again/
@jhilden That article rubs me the wrong way for some reason. I'm not smart enough to look into the research etc, but it feels like it's cherry-picked to say "steel bikes good, every other bike bad, might as well drive a car". I reckon every time someone chooses to ride a bike instead of drive a car is a win.
@vandenberglegs I get some of the same vibes to be honest, even if the author does say that it is about looking at sustainability within the context of bikes! Arguably that is important and not suprised that there are issues. Also: newer bike designs and materials make cycling easier for some, which is left out.
Also feels like the overall picture of maintainability is a bit too grim. Lack of standards is a nuisance but you can mostly get spares.
Dallas moving forward with plan to entice residents to switch from gas-powered lawn tools 🏡🍃 🥕
"Proposal [to outlaw gas-powered mowers & blowers] was scrapped after state legislators passed a law last year that blocks cities from restricting the use, sale or lease of an engine based on its fuel source."
We switched to battery lawn equipment 6 years ago & never looked back. No messy oil changes, $ gasoline, or winterizing. Good exercise. Quieter. Better for environment. All plusses. ➕ 🔋 🏡
Advice on switching to battery-powered lawn tools
Advantages to electric lawn tools include being quieter as well as being more environmentally friendly.
@pabloniusmonk yes, I also made the move to a battery mower six years ago. Looking to transition to an electric-only main vehicle by the second half of 2025.
Seriously?? The Met Gala theme is all about "celebrating clothing and fashion so delicate it could never be worn again"?
How much more tone-deaf could one be, than to celebrate planned obsolescence and conspicuous consumption in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis (not to mention the climate crisis)? #MetGala#PlannedObsolescence#sustainability#ClimateCrisis#CostOfLiving
How to unite local initiatives for a more sustainable global future
By Vasilis Kostakis, Nikiforos Tsiouris, originally published by ScienceDirect May 1, 2024
"...In a state of emergency, it is audacious to place all our hopes for tackling the ecological crisis and wealth inequality in technology –worse even, in technology that is yet to materialize... High-tech is not unsustainable in its essence, but its scale and mode of production in the capitalist realm are.
...the crux of the matter is profoundly political. The development and production of technology in the modern era are intricately interwoven with wealth inequality and environmental deterioration. Technology is not being produced in a vacuum, thus it is not neutral. On the contrary, it is highly influenced by the decisions of manufacturers, legislators, consultants, designers and everyone else involved –directly or indirectly– in the process..."
I like the idea of a "mid-tech" that isn't constrained by high/low-tech dualism. Using a new word like "cosmolocal" is helpful so that it's a different approach, rather than simply just a midway point between the two poles.
One reason I liked @debcha's How Infrastructure Works is that she spends quite a bit of time in the book focused on how important it is to localize energy production, which is something that article touches on as a challenge.
In the 70s there was an "appropriate tech" movement. Nobody was suggesting everybody had to go back to the caves and live in squalor to have a sustainable economy.
But what we have now is certainly NOT sustainable, and it's going to involve a certain amount of degrowth and ratcheting down energy use to make it sustainable - and the people in the wealthy western nations are the ones who are going to have to ratchet down the most.
You'l find data features on: Publicly accessible
Free of charge, Social
Environmentally friendly production, Organic, Seasonal, Vegetarian
Environmentally friendly packed, Unpacked, Zero waste
Fair trade
Short transport distances, Regional
Sharing, Lending
Repair
Reuse
Recycling
Community, Participation
I find this to be a fascinating example of how culture can support #sustainability through ritual and spirituality. The paper also supports the argument "that Indigenous peoples should be part of any conversation or debate on policy options around sustainability issues."
Our paper on the lifecycle assessment of the Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) was accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy, and a preprint is now available on #arXiv 🔽 http://arxiv.org/abs/2404.15122v1
RT by @EU_ScienceHub: ⚡While the EU energy system is shifting towards a decentralised supply landscape with increasing renewable sources, energy smart appliances play a crucial role in demand side flexibility and energy system optimisation.
🇪🇺 @Energy4Europe and @EU_ScienceHub launched today the Code of Conduct on Interoperable Energy Smart Appliances during the EU Energy Day at the @hannover_messe.
APPLiA is honoured to have worked as a facilitator for the voluntary-based initiative, and is looking forward to contributing to future developments to the Code, as a key step toward #EnergyEfficiency and #sustainability in Europe. ⚡🌱 #EUatHM24
Wir starten die Woche mit einem neuen Beitrag in unserem Blog: @sweckenmann hat die neuen Web #Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) unter die Lupe genommen, die im April in der Version 1.0 veröffentlicht wurden, und gibt einen ersten Überblick:
Welche Rolle werden nachhaltiges Web-Design und -Entwicklung wohl in Zukunft für uns spielen — wo doch nächste Woche endlich unsere lang erwartete #Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie-Peer-Gruppe startet?
@tollwerk@sweckenmann die idee hinter den richtlinien ist ja recht nett, aber in einer welt wo jetzt jede grosse bude mit LLMs und anderem unnoetigen KI kram rummacht, was den strohm und wasserbedarf eines mittelgrossen staates hat, ist das eher ein tropfen auf dem heissen stein...
@tollwerk@sweckenmann Vielleicht direkt in die Einleitung reinschreiben, dass es ein Entwurf ist? (Und Community Groups sind natürlich schwierig, weil sie eben nicht wie sonst beim W3C unter dem Konsens-Modell funktionieren. Es müssen sich nur fünf Leute zusammen finden und dann ist alles irgendwie ein Report.)
Grundsätzlich sind die Guidelines aber eine gute Idee.
