Environment
Carryology published part three of four of its “green guide” – a top-to-bottom analysis of what sustainable means in product manufacture at the moment. The conclusions are complicated and raise good questions about what kind of environmentalism we ought to be pursuing.
Carryology covered five solutions that manufacturers are working on at the moment:
1. a nylon made from discarded fish nets and other waste,
2. a backpack made from a banana-tree relative that is sustainable across the process,
3. a clothing subscription model that recycles clothing more efficiently,
4. an accreditation for any company that is carbon neutral (through reducing carbon output and buying offsets for the rest), and
5. the Higg material sustainability index, which ranks materials across a handful of categories like water use, emissions, chemicals, etc.
For purposes of this blog, I would eventually like the packing lists in the menu to be sustainable and environmental or at least factor these things into the product choices in some transparent way. At the moment, sustainability doesn’t figure into my lists at all – they’re just the most popular choices from Reddit.
In Less Wrong (via Slatestarcodex), a post on re-setting the zero point: frame ethical challenges as an exciting opportunity to be an ethical pioneer, rather than a bottomless pit of despair that you should feel guilty about.
Experiences
The Cleanest Line looks into the Rodale Institute: college-age workers turning away from consultancies and towards farming.
They also cover a daring ski trip down Mount Morrison in Colorado.
Good Travel Nature watches the icebergs float into the ocean in Greenland.
Her Packing List covers cold-weather camping with a baby.
Gear
Packhacker and Wool & Prince have collaborated on a new set of travel items: merino hoodie, tee shirt and buff.
Tortuga blog posts a nice round-the-world packing list.