What I've Been Thinking About
For the last week, we've been on strict government quarantine in South Korea. If we leave the room, we'll be deported.
For this entire 14 day quarantine, I have no access to coffee and only a couple of cans of Pepsi. For someone fuelled by caffeine, this is proving to be an interesting experience.
Interesting in the sense that:
It turns out caffeine withdrawal is recognised as a disorder in the DSM-5 (manual for clinicians, used for the diagnosis of mental disorders).
I can now directly sympathise with that experience, and see the extent of my caffeine addiction. Caffeine withdrawal is NOT fun.
What I'm Reading
This week, I have been doing a lot of research on carbon footprints. Specifically calculating and offsetting them.
Amongst the floods across India, wildfires across much of the Southern Hemisphere and Death Valley experiencing the highest temperature ever reliably recorded, it's painfully clear that global warming is creeping up on us. The good news is that we can use calculators to understand, reduce and offset our personal impact on that. There are some great carbon footprint calculators out there. If you're interested, I'd highly recommend checking out: UN Carbon Footprint Calculator, WWF Footprint Calculator, CoolClimate Calculator, and CarbonFootprint.com. These are really useful tools for people who have a permanent home base and a regular routine.
As a digital nomad, there are added complexities to calculating my carbon footprint which I don't see adequately addressed by any existing calculator. Traditional carbon calculators assume that you have a permanent home base and regular travel habits. The ideal nomad calculator would allow you to choose how often you use different types of transport and accommodation and also take into account digital footprint
Do you know of any tool to effectively calculate this?
My search for the best carbon offset scheme led me to Cool Earth. Cool Earth is ... According to analysis by Giving What We Can, based on the principles of Effective Altruism**,** Cool Earth ranks highest in terms of quality of implementation and robustness of evidence.
Truly Missguided
In case you missed it, Channel 4's Inside Missguided Docu-series, has been doing the rounds on social media.
There's understandable controversy surrounding the show. This fast fashion giant claims to empower "badass b*tches", but behind the peppy slogans tees is a darker reality. The smell of hypocrisy is rife though, given Missguided has a poor track record of business practices.
This dynamic - which is seen all too often in the fashion world and beyond - is summed up perfectly in this beautiful illustration by ici.jozi: via @rememberwhomadethem
Everyday Activism
Ecocide is the wilful damage to, or destruction of ecosystems. It has been committed over decades and is currently permitted in the UK. This has led to the global climate and ecological crisis that threatens humanity and the survival of many species on Earth.
Many countries are starting to wake up to the urgency of the crisis, including France and Denmark. Now is the time for the UK to unite with them. Our survival depends on it. It is time to change the rules.
If you're from the UK, consider to take a moment to sign this petition to make Ecocide a criminal offence in the UK: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/332264
Stay in Touch
And of course, I'd love to hear from you if you have any comments or feedback. And do let me know if there's something specific you think I should cover in this newsletter.
Feel free to drop me a line on Twitter, or an email to fran[at]francresswell[dot]com.
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