Learning! Roundup: Do Less to Save the World, Protester Monitoring, Peak Misery, and More!

A black woman with natural hair lying on a couch and reading.
Photo by Thought Catalog.

Do Less to Save the World


Here's an easy way to help fight climate change: simply do less. By doing less, you'll avoid participating in the system of creating and transporting people and things using stadium-sized buckets of fossil fuel. We all feel a lot of pressure to DO something, but sometimes doing the thing means you're still a part of the system, whether it's buying the latest sustainable item and participating in a damaging capitalist economy or using fossil fuels to fly everywhere.

Protester Monitoring


A new report on how the RCMP (Canada's national police) assesses risk for Indigenous protesters shows that instead of worrying about potential criminal behaviour (you know, their jurisdiction), they worry about the ability of the protesters to gain public support. It doesn't seem like that should be their concern?

Peak Misery


Apparently, middle-aged misery peaks at age 47, and then you get to live on a downward slide into happiness. This is based on research that most people's lives are on a curve of happiness (or unhappiness) that is U-shaped. We get less happy as we age, to a point, and then it reverses. This is for people who live in "richer" countries with longer lifespans. I also wonder if this will shift as people are doing things like having kids at an older age.

Smell This


People who don't have a sense of smell may be missing out on more than the sweet scent of freshly mowed grass. According to new research, every aspect of a person's life is affected if they can't smell things including personal hygiene and sexual and personal relationships. They don't enjoy eating as much, couldn't confidently serve dishes to family and friends, and didn't get vital signals to avoid danger (like the smell of smoke or gas). Yikes!

Wildfire Carbon Emissions


Among the terrible results of the Australian wildfires is a huge spike in carbon emissions. These fires are putting out up to 900 million tons of carbon dioxide, which is way more than the ecosystem is prepared to store. So climate change is getting a bump, I guess. Terrifying.

Procrastination


It looks like procrastination is more about emotional management than time management. We tend to procrastinate the most when the task we are meant to be doing makes us feel bad, whether that bad feeling is boredom, fear, or incompetence.


The Receptionist Delivers!
Sign up for my email newsletter for a bi-weekly digest and bonus content!

No comments:

Post a Comment