Welcome to week 27 of Internet of Literal Things. The weird, wacky, wonderful, and wild of the world wide web seems to be several-too-many “w’s” and a perfect place for me to start. I’m Sara Nason, a fellow person on the internet, who happens to have many hours on hand to read random articles that are tucked into multiple crevices in my phone.
This week, across the globe, climate strikes took place in many rural and urban spaces. (Not to mention that indigenous nations and communities have been advocating for and are exponentially affected by the climate crisis — and have been for decades). Hundreds of thousands of people showed up in cities to make a physical acknowledgement of the damage we’ve done to this planet we call home. Many of the pro-green accounts I follow posted something along the lines of being at a strike, of being in solidarity with the strike, or general reminders on how to be low/zero-waste. On one of these posts, someone commented, “We’re too late, we should be preparing for survival in the aftermath of the Earth being destroyed.” Not only is this just an immensely privileged thought, but I wanted to ask the poster: “what have you done to limit your emissions, your waste, your capitalist consciousness?” I am almost certain they hadn’t even taken the first step to reduce, reuse, or recycle. And the poster’s assumption was that they would be one of those who would survive the destruction of Earth. A quote I come back to often is Teddy Roosevelt’s: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” It’s really not too difficult.
This year alone, I began composting my food waste in my village (as the vast majority of our waste is food), limited my new purchases, began to buy more local/organic produce, ate less meat/red meat, made more of my food, only used reusable food items (or recyclable/compostable), purchased far fewer chemicals that could be toxic for the Earth (like switching to shampoo/conditioner/soap bars and non-toxic toothpaste). If I can make these changes, so can you.
Some accounts I follow that you should check out are:
Future Earth (@futureearth)
Take 3 for the Sea (@take3forthesea)
Seeding Sovereignty (@seedingsovereignty)
Treading My Own Path (@treadingmyownpath)
Plastic Free July (@plasticfreejuly)
Zero Waste Memes (@zerowastememes)
Life Without Plastic (@lifewithoutplastic)
Plastic Free Mermaid (@plasticfreemermaid)
Some shops to purchase sustainable items to help your long-term waste reduction:
So, strangers of the internet, here we go. do what you can with what you have for the Internet of Literal Things #27.
(While we’re at it, become a paying subscriber for $5 a month to support all of the links that bring this W-focused newsletter your way every Sunday.)
What I’m Reading
Articles
The internet relies on people working for free (OneZero)
This land is the only land that there is (CityLab)
The truth about RVs (Curbed)
How wi-fi almost didn’t happen (WIRED)
How do buildings contribute to climate change? (Curbed)
Greta Thunburg is right to panic (The Atlantic)
You can build parks without gentrifying (CityLab)
The new spiritual consumerism (NY Times)
Birds are disappearing from North America (The Atlantic)
Taylor Swift: The Rolling Stone article (Rolling Stone)
Tavi Gevinson investigates who she would be without Instagram (The Cut)
The complications of digitizing indigenous languages (Slate)
New hope, new pain, same old divorce (NY Times)
The planet can’t survive on our transportation habits (CityLab)
A map of the changing fall colors of trees (CityLab)
Books
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
The Socialist Manifesto by Bhaskar Sunkara
Inconspicuous Consumption by Tatiana Schlossberg
What I’m Visually Experiencing
My Dear Kyrgyzstan (MailChimp)
This photo series asks refugee children what they want to be when they grow up (Buzzfeed)
The New York City Block Party (NY Times)
How pencils are made (Kottke)
Between Two Ferns (Netflix)
Museum of Youth Culture (Google)
What I’m Listening To
With the autumnal equinox this week, it’s time for a new playlist:
fall19 (Spotify)
🏆 A Photo of An #UglyDogs Related Thing On The Internet 🥇
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