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At some point, on topics like this, my mind starts editing the headlines to "Maintain your Virtuous High Anxiety, and our Click Metrics, by spending yet more ti
by bell-cot 2y ago
At some point, on topics like this, my mind starts editing the headlines to "Maintain your Virtuous High Anxiety, and our Click Metrics, by spending yet more time reading yet another unactionable story about Bad Things"
- ceejayoz 2y agoAt some point, on comments like this, my mind starts editing the contents to "if I stick my head in the sand it'll all go away".
- raxxorraxor 2y agoLet's hope nobody sticks their head in microplastic.
- dotcoma 2y agoWe all have already. And not only our heads.
- Spivak 2y agoIs anything in the article actionable by me personally? Nope. Okay moving on. This works for so many things, you won't believe how many things I can not think about or have an opinion on.
- okr 2y agoHmm. One could stop drinking water out of plastic bottles. And using the good old glas one.
- bell-cot 2y agoMore generally - monitor your own waste stream, and make changes to minimize how much plastic you're throwing out, or causing to be thrown out.
- fnordian_slip 2y ago>Is anything in the article actionable by me personally? I believe this is a rather short-sighted view, but I can understand it. I often feel the same way, and have phases in which I completely ignore the news because of it. There's too much bad news nowadays, and it can be emotionally draining. But whether or not something is actionable depends on the timeframe, and how you define "actionable". It's not that there's a simple thing that you can do to directly make this problem go away, of course. But you can affect the situation indirectly by voting or protesting, for example (depending on your country, of course). Researching the problem and talking about it with friends and family can help, too, if you deem the problem serious enough. Imho the question "how much energy do I have for this?" is a more realistic filter than if something is actionable by you personally. The other path may lead you to completely ignore problems like pollution or climate change, and instead focus mainly on smaller, less important stuff.
- dialup_sounds 2y ago"If I read, share, and discuss this article on social media, it'll all go away." is as much a trap as ignorance.
- zug_zug 2y agoIn my opinion the actionable thing here is to just get word out enough that a large two-party majority says "Hmm, that's probably not good, if a candidate calls this out as a problem that we can put more research into then I'll like that candidate more." And I'm sure there are things scientists/government can start to do with this. A good first step would be setting FDA limits on microplastics on food/water.
- silverquiet 2y agoHere's how I think about it - personally, I'm considering paying a doctor a couple tens of thousands of dollars to saw out part of my skeleton and replace it with metal and plastic (a hip replacement). Compared to that, a little plastic in my testicles seems just fine.
- Pet_Ant 2y agoThe environment and pollution are the very definition of actionable. It might to be too late for us already living, but maybe not for our grandchildren… but we need to start now.
- bell-cot 2y ago> ...are the very definition of actionable. Assuming that you aren't secretly the World President, or sitting at the master controls of a fleet of brain-control satellites - what does this "action" look like, for you as an individual? Could a careful observer distinguish it from strictly-performative activism and anxiety-voicing?
- Pet_Ant 2y agoReduce your use of plastics. Encourage others to do as well. Put up with higher costs of products as they make the switch to being more sustainable. It's a group action problem just like everything else.