Dear friend,

The fight against climate change is already as hard as it is but it doesn't just mean fighting natural elements. Turns out, it doesn't even mean just fighting big conglomerates, trying to change government policies or trying to convince people that what we're doing to our planet is destroying it. For some people, being a climate activist means putting your own and your loved ones' lives in danger. Latin America is one of the most dangerous places for climate activists, especially women. Read this excellent piece from Open Democracy on the challenges women activists in Latin America face in their fight against climate change.

Berta Cáceres solidarity rally, Honduras 2016. Photo: Flickr/Daniel Cima/CIDH. CC BY 2.0.

If we want to stop humanity from destroying the living planet we need to start thinking beyond the current time and beyond borders. SpaceBuzz is an organisation that is aiming to do both. It's based on the idea of the 'overview effect', something that astronauts who see the earth from outer space experience, that allows them to see it as a "fragile ball of life". SpaceBuzz's mission is to give this experience to as many children so that they will grow up not taking the earth for granted. We talked with Spacebuzz's founder Hidde Hoogcarspel to see where Spacebuzz is headed (other than to infinity and beyond).

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Loneliness during a pandemic

News
Written by
Ava MacPherson

on
10 May 2021

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the noun ‘loneliness’ is defined as:

Sadness because one has no friends or company

(Of a place) the quality of being unfrequented and remote; isolation

I had previously thought that I had experienced feeling lonely in a pre-Covid society, for example doom scrolling Instagram and seeing friends on nights out without me, being newly single, moving to a different city and then quickly moving to a different country. Back then, there seemed to be a strange romanticism attached to feeling lonely, that by embracing one’s company, creativity could flourish. Many of my favourite artists and poets have created their best work in moments of deep isolation, using their confusion to bring clarity to their situation - however, this daze of loneliness that so many of us are experiencing feels darker, stoic and doesn’t seem to be shifting.

A year ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, I was fairly hopeful. I think there was a welcome stillness that I hadn’t realised I needed and I enjoyed seeing the banana bread and ‘working out from home’ phenomenon unfold before me via various screens. I had daydreams of finally being able to sit down and “write something”, maybe take some time to think about learning Dutch properly. I caught up with so many friends via FaceTime and we all had the same conversations, that this was an awful time, but we would make something positive happen, that we would carpe diem the shit out of COVID-19, had we thought about baking? What about starting a business? What about doing something for the community? We were so optimistic about this being a learning curve for society, that we all needed to learn to ‘slow down’ and take note, be grateful.

The reality is that I have spent most of my time in no man's land, hovering between my bedroom and my kitchen, or logging in and out of zoom for both professional and work events. The fireplace that used to be the epicentre in the home for families to gather, has now been replaced by a screen. This is where we find out how the world is doing, what atrocities have occurred within the pandemic, where we watch Netflix, stream family weddings and funerals, it is the place where the majority of us log in at 9am on a Monday to start the working week. It is no surprise that people are beginning to feel lost when they’re in front of their screen, but also can’t function without it. It now serves us at the centre point of our lives, but pushes us further into a state of confusion, separateness which wasn’t as obvious before the pandemic.

For me, I feel most lonely when I see my colleagues partners bringing them cups of tea during zoom meetings. It is a healthy reminder that I also should make sure that I’m drinking enough, but it is the desperateness of knowing that the only person who’s going to make me a cup of tea, is myself, and it leaves a bitter and strange taste in my mouth. I now have a reminder on my phone that tells me to drink water, and if it wasn’t there, I would forget, and get to the end to 6pm having moved once or twice since 9am.

My time is now completely navigated and controlled by tasks that take around 40 minutes to an hour long, these range from household tasks, exercising, eating, replying to messages on WhatsApp - it’s comforting, isolating and suffocating all at the same time. If one of these tasks doesn’t get done, the guilt I feel is quite staggering, because when the world is at a standstill, it feels like there is no excuse to not tick the tasks off the todo list. This loneliness has now become so natural that it feels like a second skin, it presents itself as the easy option, but the damage it causes quickly becomes apparent when you’re feeling overwhelmed by just the thought of navigating a conversation with four other people in a park. This pandemic has hit us all in different ways, but for singletons, or individuals living alone, it has brought a life of freedom to an abrupt halt. For couples and families that have spent the last year living on top of each other, it is the quiet five minutes that they long for.

The comfort that I take from this strange time that we are existing in is that we are, in different ways, experiencing the same level of confusion about how we got here, and where we are going. The old question in movies and literature of “where were you when Kennedy got shot?” Will now be replaced with “where were you during the first lockdown?” And it’ll be here, where a commonality will be formed through the shared experiences of Covid-19, where our moments of loneliness will join and become a ‘togetherness’.

This story features:

Mental health / health / Covid-19

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Life on...Plastic?

News

Written by
Ana Moura

on
10 May 2021

As plastic becomes a greater part of the sea, nature tries to adapt. But is this a good thing?

The ocean — a vast mystery, covering 70% of our world’s surface, producing oxygen, and holding the majority of life on Earth.

The depths of the ocean are not the most hospitable habitats for marine life — with high pressures, absent light, and scarce nutrients it can be hard for anything to survive. But the sea floor can reveal unexpected things; from natural life havens in heated water from fissures in the seafloor to whale corpses. A recent discovery found biodiversity in the depths of the ocean has developed unusual habitats...made of plastic!

The South China Sea has become a hot spot for deep-sea pollution, arousing great public concern. With this in mind, researchers used deep-diving submarines to look for plastic. What they found was surprising: these objects were full of life, with 49 different species inhabiting them.

Prominent among them were jellyfish polyps — a stage of the animal’s life cycle in which it is fixed to a surface — and the juveniles of shelled organisms called brachiopods, but the team also found free-living creatures such as deep-sea snails and parasitic flatworms.

Why is this happening? Researchers think it might be because solid objects are scarce on the ocean’s deep-floor. When these objects are available, organisms find them suitable for settling on.

But is it a good thing or a bad thing that plastic objects are adding to the deep-ocean fauna? Nature’s adaptability to the most adverse conditions is inspiring — but that doesn’t mean plastic belongs in the depths of the ocean. It’s still a problem, even though nature is finding a way to fix it herself.

The world is currently producing nearly hundreds of million tons of plastic each year - and a significant amount will end up in the oceans. Why is this a problem? Not only is this harmful to the environment and the oceans, but it is also harmful to wildlife - injuring and killing fish, seabirds, and marine mammals. It also ends up polluting the human food chain, as the plastic ingested by fish ends up being digested by humans.

It’s easy to feel like a drop in the ocean when it comes to tackling world problems like the excessive amount of plastic in our oceans. Our appeals give you the possibility to support the most effective charitable organizations working to solve this problem from different angles.

By donating to the Save our Oceans Appeal you’ll support four organizations amongst the most effective in working to tackle this world problem.

Don’t just donate to charity - give to the best solutions.

This story features:

plastic / environment / save our oceans

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Purpose-driven job seekers find refuge in the green economy

News

Written by
Ana Sofia Mergulhão

on
9 May 2021

Luckily for them, their ideals have a home: the green job market is growing fast. The Global Commission on the Future of Work expects the creation of 24m new green jobs worldwide over the next 10 years.

“There are an awful lot of opportunities outside of the traditional ‘green’ companies, or on graduate schemes, where you get an all-round understanding of what (sustainably-focused) companies are doing, with the chance to specialise later,” says Kim Connor Streich, marketing director at Debut, a graduate recruitment app.

From sustainable fashion to vegan food, there are opportunities not only in big brands, but also in the public sector, non-governmental organisations, industry associations, and consulting.

“Part of the challenge in finding the right role in the green economy is how broad the sector is”, says Shannon Houde, a career and executive coach for the impact sector and author of Good Work: How to Build a Career that Makes a Difference in the World.

“I break it down into five key categories: corporate responsibility and sustainability; social impact and international trade and development; sustainable finance and responsible investment; environmental (for example, renewable energy); and smart cities and food.”

STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects graduates will be a key piece in this green revolution.

“STEM is always a labour of the heart,” says Shannon. “It’s problem solving and it’s teamwork.”

Part of Shannon’s mission is encouraging young people to appreciate the range of skills that will be needed in a green future.

“The real power is in the cross-discipline nature of what we do. STEM skills are absolutely going to be at the heart of the green economy, but the ability to communicate and translate those ideas is really important [as well].”

Debut app found that 89% of female and 80% of male students and graduates want to work for an organisation that takes sustainability seriously.

The increasing interest from graduates in subjects such as waste recycling, renewable energy and green investment is a clear sign that a new generation of jobseekers is after jobs with well-established environmental policies.

Luckily, the green job market is also looking for fresh pairs of eyes.

This story features:

environment / Jobs / purpose / green economy

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To infinity and beyond

Dear friend,

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