As Charlie wrote about earlier today, transportation is a big source of greenhouse gas emissions. The fact that you and I don’t have to commute to work every day already helps in terms of limiting carbon emissions, and it’s something we can feel really good about!
But most of us probably still do more driving than we really have to. I’m from California, the U.S. state with the most cars per capita. Driving is what we Californians do (as you may remember from the movie L.A. Story). It often can’t be helped, given how spread out everything is there.
My simple suggestion, with this post, is that you should try to walk more. Take advantage of the fact that you’re not tied to a desk and a schedule, that nobody’s checking how long your lunch hours are. We can often take the time to actually walk to the grocery store when there’s no rush-hour mob scene, and smell the roses along the way. It’s good for body, soul and planet.
How walkable is your neighborhood? I recently stumbled on Walk Score, a cool site that ranks 2,508 neighborhoods in the 40 largest U.S. cities for walkability. I plugged in my old address to test it: Read the rest of this entry »
It’s no surprise that working remotely can have benefits for your environmental footprint: Working offsite has knocked around 18,000 miles off my public transport usage from last year alone. But no matter how careful or responsible web workers might be, the reality is that first-world or “western” lifestyles and standards of living are inherently linked with resource consumption. You may be doing your bit, but you’re unlikely to be living a carbon-neutral life. Read the rest of this entry »
Source: U. S. Department of Transportation http://www.climate.dot.gov/about/transportations-role/overview.html
Transportation is the second-largest source of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, accounting for 28 percent of the total. As web workers, many of us can choose where we work, and how we get there.
I’ve been lucky enough to have a career that’s allowed me to live and work in places where I don’t need a car. There are many such places, even in North America, where being car-less is possible and desirable. (Of course, in most of Europe, it’s much easier.) Read the rest of this entry »
Today is Blog Action Day. Held on Oct. 15 every year, it’s an event that unites thousands of bloggers worldwide, highlighting a particular issue. This year’s theme is climate change.
As web workers, most of us don’t face the same daily commute that our cubicle-dwelling colleagues do, and it’s easy to think that we’re already “doing our bit” for climate change (although there is some debate as to whether web workers are truly green). Reducing transportation is great, but there’s still much more that you can do. Today is an opportunity to brainstorm some ways to reduce the resources you consume and the carbon emissions you’re responsible for.
We’ll be providing some tips for reducing your impact on the environment today, but we’ve already published quite a lot of posts on the topics of sustainability and reducing energy consumption for web workers. Here are some highlights:
I’ve often mentioned that I live in the Philippines, a country that has seen more than its fair share of political and economic turmoil. Because of this, many of our citizens feel that the only way to escape poverty in this country is by working in a foreign land and sending money to their family here.
One can’t blame them for leaving. Everyone wants to give their family the basic necessities such as education, shelter, food, and medical care. If other third world countries are just like the Philippines, or even worse, then there are few employment opportunities, low pay against a decent standard of living, and little hope for the average citizen. This is what forces most people to become overseas migrant workers. However, this solution to one’s personal poverty has several disadvantages.
Today is Blog Action Day, and Web Worker Daily is participating by blogging about this year’s theme, poverty.
When I hear that word, I think of Africa, a continent that has historically been, and still is, either criminally exploited (to put it mildly), or shamelessly neglected by the rest of the world.
When it comes to web working, Africa is one of the last frontiers. In most sub-Saharan African countries, people tend to use mobile phones more than the Internet for business-related activities and communications. Factors contributing to this are high illiteracy rates and linguistic diversity. In addition, the high cost of bandwidth and lack of infrastructure are a serious problem. Many African countries also lack workers skilled enough in information and communication technologies (ICT) for web working to be a viable option. These factors are obstacles to adoption of the Internet as a tool for business, but access to computers and the Internet would contribute greatly to overcoming the obstacles that hinder their adoption and use in the first place.
We wanted to take a moment to let you know that Web Worker Daily will be participating in the second annual Blog Action Day, which will take place this Wednesday, October 15th.
Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. The theme for 2008 is Poverty.
The organizers of Blog Action Day ask that we “examine the issues from our own unique viewpoints and perspectives, look for solutions on the small and large scale, and ask how the individual and the collective can make changes.”
We hope you’ll join us in this worldwide grassroots action to sensitize people to the myriad issues and stories of poverty. If you’re not a blogger, don’t despair. There are several other ways to take part!
Please let us know in the comments if you’re planning to participate!
As Charlie wrote about earlier today, transportation is a big source of greenhouse gas emissions. The fact that you and I don’t have to commute to work every day already helps in terms of limiting carbon emissions, and it’s something we can feel really good about!
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
