Congrats to Tom and the Monzo team. I've had an account since the days of 'Mondo', and the focus on user experience and trust has endured (and if anything maybe increased).
So called "developed" countries were once similarly careless with their waste. And their developed status was a result of such carelessness and the free expansion of their industries. It seems slightly unfair to expect developing countries to achieve a similar level of development via a sustainable methodology immediately, when that has not been the path for the richest countries in the world. (Given that developing countries are likely more concerned about the health of their population, and as such, focused on raising GDP, then the health of the ocean). Skipping to sustainable-led development is not impossible and obviously would be hugely advantageous for all, but it is still equally unfair to assign blame to such countries and label them as careless.
So we should give all developing countries a pass on destroying the habitability of the planet because we used to be as bad ourselves when we didn't know better? While it may be 'fair', I don't think that's sustainable. Even if these countries eventually become 'developed' and start behaving better, there will be new countries that will become 'developed' to take their place, and we'll just keep having these issues over and over until it's too late.
We're already (collectively) fucking the ecosystems and wiping out tons of species of flora and fauna, and making the living situation of billions (and possibly trillions) of life forms on this planet more toxic and less comfortable all in the name of convenience and growth. And it seems like we're on a trajectory of only making things worse in the future.
We need to start doing something about it, the developed countries by being an example and by taking advantage of our desirable trade status by providing incentives (trade, foreign aid, whatever) for developing countries to clean up their act sooner than later.
I don't dispute that it is unsustainable. I agree with the sentiment of what you are saying (and did in the end of my comment) despite you strawmanning my comment. I was just making the point that assigning blame to current developing countries is unfair because blame should be equally apportioned to today's developed countries who, throughout their period of industrialisation, kicked off the anthropocene.
I mean... no where I personally traveled in Indonesia had trash service. Maybe Jakarta and Java do, IDK. But it’s REALLY common to just dump your trash behind your place and burn it. It’s just what you do.
Malaysia was better, but I’m sure people there and in Taiwan still burn trash.
Asking people who are still burning trash to recycle might be a step too far just yet.
Of course they have the ability to recycle. They even have the ability to be 100% sustainable (e.g. Costa Rica). My point was on the matter of anthropocene blame culture.
At any rate, spring is here, even in London N1, and they can't stop you enjoying it. This is a satisfying reflection. How many a time have I stood watching the toads mating, or a pair of hares having a boxing match in the young corn, and thought of all the important persons who would stop me enjoying this if they could. But luckily they can't. So long as you are not actually ill, hungry, frightened or immured in a prison or a holiday camp, spring is still spring. The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.
—from 'Some Thoughts on the Common Toad' by George Orwell. Highly recommend.
Fair, would be interesting to see the data. I stumbled across this because the founder of an incubator in the UK called Entrepreneur First cited it as something they used to think about applicants. (Their USP is they don't look for teams or ideas but instead pure technical talent or people with domain expertise). [https://youtu.be/RhE_0ZRBq4Q?t=2574]
Favourite book I've read this month so far is Flight to Arras, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Its a beautifully written book about life, war, death, refugees, politics, adventure, community religion & humanism (set during WW2 when France was in a seemingly dire position). Saint-Ex is better known for The Little Prince and Wind, Sand and Stars, but I think this is my favourite I've read of him.
Teaser: “For love is greater than any wind of words. And man, leaning at his window under the stars, is once again responsible for the bread of the day to come, for the slumber of the wife who lies by his side, all fragile and delicate and contingent. Love is not thinking, but being. As I sat facing Alias I longed for night, when my thoughts would be of civilization, of the destiny of man, of the savor of friendship in my native land. For night, so that I might yearn to serve some overwhelming purpose which at this moment I cannot define. For night, so that I might perhaps advance a step towards fixing my unmanageable language. I longed for the night as the poet might do, the true poet who feels himself inhabited by a thing obscure but powerful, and who strives to erect images like ramparts round that thing in order to capture it. To capture it in a snare of images.”
