My thoughts on the new age of humanity that’s coming after this current madness. I’ve spoken about stewardship before.
You can watch this video directly here.
Released 26-04-2021
Thanks for watching!
My thoughts on the new age of humanity that’s coming after this current madness. I’ve spoken about stewardship before.
You can watch this video directly here.
Released 26-04-2021
Thanks for watching!
Here are my thoughts on the world’s population, population density and our physical proximity. You can also find my previous posts on this topic here.
You can watch the video directly here.
Released 24-04-2021
Thanks for watching!
Amidst all of the scary news reports and shelter-in-place rules everywhere, there are good things going on, caused by the very same situation. I thought I’d list several of them here:
Clearly there are costs for all of this free time that most of us have gotten. Let’s hope that they are mostly temporary, and that they won’t be too much of a burden for us all to bear. It’s easy to let thoughts of “what might tomorrow bring” get you down, but it’s vitally important that during this time, this unusual respite from the daily grind, that we take the time to breathe, literally and figuratively.
I am happy to let you know that things are underway within the EU to ensure that products will last longer and will be easier to repair in the future. These are proposed measures at the moment, they’re not law, but they soon could be. The idea, according to the EEB (European Environmental Bureau) is to:
If you live within the EU, I encourage you to contact your representatives to the EU Parliament and to ask them to support these proposed measures.
Even if this isn’t law yet, I am happy to see my own feelings on the matter mirrored by those in a position to do something about it. You may recall that I wrote an article called “Truly sustainable computing” back in August of 2015, where I proposed that desktop computers have a projected lifespan of 20 years and laptops and mobiles phones have a projected lifespan of 10 years.
The proposed EU measures would apply to every category of products, not just to computing devices, so things like cars, electronics, appliances would all be covered by the new regulations, ensuring we would once again have quality products that last a long time.
I say “once again” because those of you who are younger than me may not recall we had this sort of thing before the 1970s. The idea of “planned obsolescence” was introduced in the 1960s by manufacturers and that’s when things started to go downhill for products in terms of durability, repairability and build quality. You could still get kitchen appliances made in the late 1960s that looked and worked perfectly even in the late 2000s. You can no longer do that with today’s appliances.
It’s irresponsible in so many ways for us to generate mountains of e-waste every year and it’s doubly irresponsible for manufacturers to make them, one because they’re using the Earth’s resources without any regard for the future and two, because they make them easily breakable and disposable, contributing to the enormous amounts of waste that we generate as a race. It’s time we did something quantifiable and legally binding about this!
This video explains why I chose to fix my wheelbarrow instead of throwing it away. (It has to do with conserving resources and reducing waste.)
Its inner chamber couldn’t be patched after too many punctures, and when I went to Home Depot and Lowe’s, I discovered I couldn’t buy a new inner chamber, because they’re no longer stocked. I’d have had to buy an entire new wheel and tire assembly, for almost the same price as a new wheelbarrow. What I did instead was to buy a new tubeless tire, which is made of solid rubber and never needs replacing, thus saving my wheelbarrow from the scrap heap and eliminating the need for new wheels in the future.