Rethink Convenience Weekly: 16th April 2021
This week: resistance to change, tiny volunteering, and next week’s sustainability calendar
Welcome to the fifth Rethink Convenience weekly. Each week I summarise the latest articles in Rethink Convenience, highlight some interesting things I’ve encountered in the last week, and give a preview of what’s coming up.
I took a couple of weeks off over Easter, so thanks for sticking with me.
New Stories
Almost a Quarter of Us Won’t Change to Prevent Climate Change
The results of a recent survey of British people, on how willing they’d be to change their behaviours on behalf of the planet, made for depressing reading. Not least because the purpose of this blog is to encourage people to rethink those behaviours, to give up their conveniences for the sake of our future. (read more)
What is Microvolunteering Day? (15 April)
Microvolunteering can take a variety of different forms, either in person or online through a website or app. Examples include donating to food banks, litter picking, using apps or search engines to support charities and non-profit organisations, participating in citizen science, and more. They are ways to make contributions when you are short on time or physically distanced from the beneficiaries. The day falls on 15 April each year. (read more)
Tips
As we looked at MicroVolunteering this week (“bite-sized, on-demand, no commitment actions that benefit a worthy cause”), here are some ways that you can incorporate this into your own lives:
- Use charity search engines (such as ecosia, givewater, or ekoru)
- Use environmental apps (such as treeapp, Forest, #climate, or WeDon’tHaveTime)
- Use foodshare apps (such as Olio or TooGoodToGo)
- Participate in Citizen Science
For more information on each of these suggestions, please check out the post on MicroVolunteering.
Do you MicroVolunteer? In what small ways do you contribute or support your favourite causes and your local community?
What I’ve Consumed this Week
- Comic: Racked with guilt and grief and climate despair — how do we go on!? — Published at the beginning of the week, this edition of the political cartoon actually moved me quite a bit, even though it’s told from the perspective of a penguin (or is it because it’s told from the perspective of an penguin?)
- TV: Climate Change: Ade on the Frontline — This show sees Ade Adepita look at those who are already being affected by climate change, starting with the Solomon Islanders who are losing their homes to rising sea levels and Australians affected by record drought and bush fires. Frank and immediate.
- Article: New materials to make ships more sustainable and less noisy for marine life — Immediate thought was that if it’s so difficult to recycle/reclaim FRP at end of life, is FRP as an alternative material a non-starter? Are we better off exploring greener fuels and more efficient logistics, instead of switching out materials?
- Article: Climate change: Revealed — how many Britons are unwilling to change their habits to tackle the crisis — the inspiration for my first article above.
- Article: Making Sense of the World’s Climate Targets — a great primer on what all the terms relating to our climate targets mean: “net zero”, “zero-emission”, “carbon neutral” and many more.
- Event: World Circular Economic Forum + Climate — A range of talks exploring how CE can and must support climate action. Check out their Twitter feed for updates and their youtube channel to watch back their talks.
Next Week
Today, Friday, 16 April: David Attenborough’s new documentary “The Year Earth Changed” launches on AppleTV
Tomorrow, Saturday 17 April: Bat Appreciation Day
Thursday, 22 April: Earth Day (international)
Sunday, 25 April:
- World Malaria Day
- World Penguin Day
