Guide
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Facebook Alternatives Guide: 2023 Update
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February 2023: When I originally wrote this guide, years ago, Facebook was a true behemoth. It’s still a massive tech company by most metrics, but a rebrand to push an unwanted Metaverse has definitely hurt the organization. The number of active daily users in the US and Canada has fallen in the past two years,…
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Amazon Alternatives Guide: 2022 Update
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Why would anyone want to avoid Amazon? A one-stop-shop for everything from books to clothes to pillows featuring Nicolas Cage’s face photoshopped onto Kim Jong Un’s head, it has made it possible for almost anything you want to appear on your doorstep the next day. But worker exploitation, tax dodging and invasions of customers’ privacy…
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A Beginner’s Guide to Eating Sustainably in London
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We all know and love London as an incredible foodie city. However, we also know that the average diet is an unfortunate driver of climate change. Our current food system, the meat consumption, food waste, and plastic usage are among the reasons carbon emissions are increasing and the world is warming. The question then, is:…
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Kindness Meditation: A Short Practice for Cultivating Kindness
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To celebrate World Kindness Day, Kaira Jewel, a former Buddhist nun who lived for 15 years in the Plum Village community, offers reflections and a mindfulness practice to help us cultivate kindness. I moved to Colombo, Sri Lanka a year ago. During the first six weeks or so I experienced culture shock as I adjusted…
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How to Cultivate the Art of Noticing
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The stimulation of modern life, philosopher Georg Simmel complained in 1903, wears down the senses, leaving us dull, indifferent and unable to focus on what really matters In the 1950s, writer William Whyte lamented in Life magazine that ‘billboards, neon signs,’ and obnoxious advertising were converting the American landscape into one long roadside distraction. ‘A…
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Sustainable Fabrics A-Z: Which Clothing Materials Are Ethical?
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The fashion industry always seems to be proclaiming the next revolutionary sustainable fabrics: confusingly, some of these trending materials are organic, natural fibres; some are synthetic; and some are even made of the very materials we’ve been told are terrible for the environment, like plastic bottles. So we’ve done some digging to discover which are…
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Sustainable Period Products: A Guide
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If you’re like me, you were raised to feel disposable tampons and pads were the only way to manage menstrual blood. You never thought to ask if there was an alternative, and if you did, you were met with a smart answer from your mum along the lines of, “You should have seen what I…
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A Guide to Ethical Energy
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The energy industry is powering us towards catastrophic climate change. On the current path we’re on, set by the 100 companies that produce the majority of greenhouse gas emissions—Shell, BP, Exxon & co—the world is projected to get four degrees warmer by the end of the century: meaning drowned coastal cities, regular killer heatwaves and…
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How to Eat a Planet-Friendly Diet
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If you live in a developed country, it can seem churlish to complain about the global food system of farmers, suppliers and retailers that makes sure our supermarket shelves are always fully stocked. But as grateful as we should be for food security and variety that our ancestors—and the 820 million people in the world…