Down to Earth
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On April 22, 1970, millions of people protested the negative impact of industrial development. Almost 50 years later, we’ve turned to technology to solve the Earth’s most urgent problems.
Click here to see the full blog post
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In a few and careful words the so called "Industrial Development" spent a few money in food production technology.
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one of the biggest changes that happened was to get smokestack manufactures to reduce toxins being released in the air and people to stop throwing trash out the car window when driving. We used to load up a car with trash to bring to a recycling center back then, nowadays they pick up a recycle bin at your driveway!
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Ecosia has a great mission, but MAN the search engine is terrible, even for trivial searches.
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I either walk, bike, or on rare occasions hitch a ride. It saves about a ton of CO2 emission per year if you count the emissions from the automobile manufacturing process. That is a bonus benefit, though, as biking or walking has its own rewards.
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Money Makes the World Go Round
Money is the driving force that makes the world go round at an ever increasing pace. It motivates much of human activity such as geological exploration, scientific research, technological advances, and politics. Money itself, of course, is not evil, but the love of money is called the root of all evil. What this really means is that greed, or desire is the root of all evil. The Buddha taught that craving is the cause of suffering.
To remove greed entirely is not easy, even if one sees it as a desirable aim. One has to accept that greed is built-in to human nature. Changing the behaviour of others is very difficult, but changing one’s own behaviour can be done at once if one sees clearly that there are better ways of getting similar results.
Since the vast majority of people are not going to live the life of a hermit, technology should be used to reduce consumption. Working from home using the Internet still uses power, but the emissions are less than commuting to work in a diesel SUV.
Building cycle paths, planting trees, electric cars, bikes and scooters, can all play a part in reducing pollution. Mining lithium can be done in ways that are less harmful to the environment.
A better designed browser can have a battery-saving mode to reduce power consumption.
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@LeBaux It isn't only Ecosia that stinks. Both Duck Duck Go and Startpage also reek. None of those three give very many relevant search results. Sadly only Google does a barely reasonable job of returning anything relevant.
Until my health took a dive I did as much walking and/or cycling as possible. Both walking and cycling are healthier and environmentally friendly. Personally it means a lot to think it was my generation which started Earth Day.
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@EmiCash I think you missed the point. By a long way.
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@Para-Noid said in Down to Earth:
@LeBaux It isn't only Ecosia that stinks. Both Duck Duck Go and Startpage also reek. None of those three give very many relevant search results. Sadly only Google does a barely reasonable job of returning anything relevant.
I don't get it, but I hope somehow this is meant to be humorous
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@TalGarik It depends on the kinds of searches you have to do. For my work, I have been unable, despite multiple attempts, to wean myself off of Google.
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@Para-Noid said in Down to Earth:
It isn't only Ecosia that stinks. Both Duck Duck Go and Startpage also reek.
I doubt that. Startpage gives Google search results, just without the personalisation, which is in most cases a good thing. You don't want to be targeted by customized ads and search results, because Google thinks it knows what's best for you.
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@luetage I'm not crazy about Google tracking or profiling me, but I REALLY need a search to be both broad and centered on prior results I have used. Few terms, many results, but results relevant to prior ones I have selected - not ones in diverse subject areas, distant towns, unrelated people. That just adds time curating search results - and when there are tens of thousands, good curating is really impossible. Google is sometimes completely wrong about what I want, but more often, it's rather on-target.
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This Chart of Changing CO2 Emissions from 1960-2017 shows the countries doing the most to contribute to Climate change.
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@emicash: At an individual level, it's up to every single one of us to reduce their environmental footprint, e.g. choose how we travel, choose to recycle, pick natural detergents, etc, etc. At a company level, we can improve the browser to make it more efficient, we can provide green options, such as Ecosia, we can aim to run the servers on clean energy, and to create a green office culture. Maybe we're not perfect but we'll get there. Technology just needs to be put to good use
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@Pesala The visuals are stunning, however the facts and their impact are not. Thanks for sharing this one.
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@para-noid: I do find google will give me more results but in my research I have found Bing to give me fewer but more relevant results.
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@pesala: @pesala: "Working from home using the Internet"... Yes I tried to get to do that as i did not have to deal with the public an only occasionally directly with my clients. I could have come in two times a week (even less) but my manager needed bodies at desks to define his position in this hierarchical management system. So I had to commute 100+ Km to my desk and back home every day, even though we had the technology.
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