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Thursday 3rd December 2020 | PALATINATE
On Climate A special feature
What on Earth is going on?
The untold impact of a single, subconscious click
Remember when Christmas shopping looked like this? (TheOtherKev)
Harrison Newsham At the beginning of the first lockdown, our Instagram feeds were graced with stories of dolphins returning to Venetian canals. The narrative went that fewer people travelling allowed the waterways a break from pollution, and Mother Nature could reclaim what humanity had seized from her. We retreated into our comfy clothes, content with the thought that our isolation was creating some good out of the bad. But though stories like this offered some respite from the daunting weeks of lockdown, they were completely false.
Amazon hired 250,000 new couriers and warehouse workers between July and September Bored and restless at home, we began to engage in behaviours that were much more destructive to our environment than dropping litter into a Venetian canal could ever be. Online shopping has been a consumerist revolution. Its massive environmental impact is the last thing on our minds when the convenience of a click seems to eclipse all anxieties. It’s true: Amazon-
ordering and fast fashion did not begin with Covid-19. We’ve been regularly scrolling, clicking, and answering the doorbell for the best part of a decade. However, with the world in lockdown, many of us began to shop online at an alarming rate. Amazon hired 250,000 new couriers and warehouse assistants between July and September 2020, pushing their global workforce past one million people. Parcels now make up 60% of Royal Mail’s revenue – up from 47% before the pandemic. So, what’s wrong with that? Surely saving a trip into town to buy that pair of trainers reduces our carbon emissions? Unfortunately, online shopping commits greater crimes than simply burning the petrol that powers most vehicles. Our orders come packaged in cardboard, Styrofoam, plastic bags, and bubble wrap (made from our convenient friend, crude oil), which is inevitably binned
and dumped in landfill. It then lays there for years, toxifying the earth.
Online shopping is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It appears harmless, but actually does serious damage Our desire for dopamine – call it addiction – makes fast fashion irresistible. But as we bulk buy kilo after kilo of clothing with the intention of sending back items which just don’t fit, we forget that 20% of online returns are sent to landfill because the retailer can no longer sell them. That’s not to mention the extra delivery trips to and from the warehouse. Online ordering is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It appears harmless, but actually does serious damage to our already crippled environment. To combat this, we need to become m o r e
A single click (Adeline Zhao)
self-aware, to resist over-buying. I may seem cynical, or preachy. But I can’t deny that I have shopped online, fallen for adverts, and smiled when I found a parcel placed neatly at my door (or shoved in a nearby bush) with my prized purchase inside. I’ve then forgotten about that purchase a few weeks later. No one’s infallible. I also cannot deny that online shopping has been a lifesaver for some people during lockdown. Without supermarkets’ online order systems, many vulnerable people would have struggled to feed themselves during these months.
20% of returns are sent to landfill, not resold But as the light at the end of this pandemic-shaped tunnel brightens, what we need to do is shop more consciously. We n e e d to shop local, buy clothes only when necessary, and reduce the amount we return, even when it is more convenient to do otherwise. Covid-19 is just one hurdle we humans will face in the coming decades. In the marathon against climate change, the hurdles are predicted to get bigger and bigger.
Climate change makes the news more often than it did a decade ago, but it still does not dominate the news cycle. That’s a problem. Climate change is not a ‘woke’ issue for the hippies and the young. Nor is it a policy conundrum that can be solved by making a loophole of ambiguous phrasing. Climate change is the state of being that our generation, and the ones that come next, will have to grapple with for our entire lives. We need to pay attention to climate change because we need to breathe clean air. 8.3% of premature deaths in the UK are linked to diseases (asthma, lung disease, stroke) which are themselves linked to air pollution. We need to pay attention to climate change because we love seeing polar bears in nature documentaries. But scientists expect a 30% decline in polar bear numbers over the next 30 years. Even our beloved coffee dates at Flat White are in danger. Half of land currently used to grow coffee could be unproductive by 2050. We urgently need to educate ourselves on the impacts of climate change. That’s why the SciTech section has given over this edition to a collection of articles on the theme. Reading through the submissions, I have been shocked by some of the facts. If you want to go further, I recommend listening to the podcast ‘How to Save a Planet’. The New York Times’ newsletter ‘Climate fwd’ is also excellent. But after reading ‘The Case for CDs’ on page 14, you might think twice before signing up to any more email newsletters! Faye Saulsbury Science and Technology Editor GOT AN IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE? WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!
Send your thoughts to scitech@palatinate.org.uk
