The Monday Mix (05/04/2021)
Hello friends!
It’s amazing to think we’re already four months into 2021. 2020 seemed to last forever and the first month or so of this year dragged on, but here we are, in April already.
I always find time seems to pass faster the older you get. One theory is, that as you become used to the world around you and experience fewer novel events, time moves faster than it did when you were younger.
Maybe this explains why last March seemed to last so long. For most of us, we’d never been in such a scenario before. Now that we’re used to the pandemic, time is moving much faster again.
Here’s what I want to share this week:
Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren
John Maynard Keynes is one of the most influential economists in history. His writing still holds true today and after finishing Bullshit Jobs the other day, I turned to the above essay.
It was Keynes who stated his belief in 1930 that he would be working 15 hour weeks 100 years into the future. With 9 years left to meet his deadline, we’re as far away as ever.
Reading his essay, it’s amazing to see how much his essay still resonates today. He talks of the desire to hoard, the profound technological changes we’ve made and our propensity to work for work’s sake.
Some may consider Keynes’ ideas to be fanciful or too pie in the sky. But I think we could achieve a world where the majority of us can work 15 hours a week. Imagine how much better mental health across the globe would be if the working week was reduced.
It’s worth considering whether we need to work as much as we do, when we could easily offer everyone a universal basic income and free up their time for more creative and productive pursuits.
Deforestation Explained
While researching some statistics for one of my Ship30For30 essays, I came across this resource on deforestation. Some of the statistics in it are shocking.
This one hit me hard:
Between 1990 and 2016, the world lost 502,000 square miles (1.3 million square kilometers) of forest, according to the World Bank—an area larger than South Africa. Since humans started cutting down forests, 46 percent of trees have been felled, according to a 2015 study in the journal Nature.
If we want to mitigate climate change, we need trees. They absorb carbon and are home to many animals and even humans.
It’s incredible how short-term our mindset is and how we don’t value the natural world. Forests are beautiful places. Trees are wonderful and provide us, and the natural world with life.
Hopefully, we come to our senses and realise the importance of forests. But with the way things are going, I’m not optimistic.
Are We Living At The Hing of History?
This is a fascinating thought to ponder. Are we living at the most important time in history? I’m sure most generations have thought about this before.
There are plenty of arguments for and against. I’m not going to get into them here. I’m more interested in the overall thought that we could be living in such an important time in human history. Although, if you take a microscope and comb through our shared history as a species, I’m sure you could plenty of similar moments.
This article left me with more questions than answers. But maybe that’s not a bad thing.
Quote I’m pondering:
“Given the scientific and technological discoveries of the last two centuries, the world has never changed as fast. We shall soon have even greater powers to transform, not only our surroundings but ourselves and our successors.” - Derek Parfit
Book I’m reading - The Good Ancestor
I’m about halfway through this book which I’m enjoying. The focus of the book is on how we can be good ancestors by thinking long-term instead of short-term.
It presents a lot of points to think about and has opened my eyes to just how short-term we are and how long-term some of our ancestors were.
Show I watched - Seaspiracy
I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s watched Seaspiracy recently. It was an eye-opening watch for me as I’m a pescetarian. I didn’t know much about the fishing industry, but what the film portrayed was shocking.
Many species are close to the brink of extinction because of overfishing. While I doubt everything in the film is accurate, the fact the people behind the labels on your tins of fish can’t guarantee whether the fish was responsibly sourced or not, says a lot.
That’s it for this week. I’ll keep sending the essays from Ship30For30 in the incoming days.
Until next time,
Tom