How do you decide what to read?
Do you go to the same places every week? How do you get to discover new writers, ideas, subjects?
Important questions really. If we stick to what we know, or even what we know we don’t know, we’ll never come across the vast array of things that we don’t know we don’t know. We’ll remain comfortable, but limited.
This is the idea behind John Bird’s new venture. The British peer, founder of the homelessness magazine the Big Issue, is calling for a “revolution in reading”. Oliver Balch found out why.
In a sense, this newsletter does the same thing: suggesting a range of (uplifting) material that readers wouldn’t otherwise come across.
So here are a few unknown unknowns from the Upside world that you might not be aware of:
• Fake medicine is a $200bn (£157bn) industry in skulduggery that kills tens of thousands every year. Fortunately, a few hero figures are fighting back.
• The world is getting noisier. Here’s how to tone it down a tad.
• The news is getting scarier. He’s how to retain a sense of perspective.
• Musicians are building their own solar farms.
• And having frightened us all to death, Al Gore is finally (a bit) optimistic again.
Lucky numbers
The number of Swedes opting for rail travel over flights for domestic journeys is surging, perhaps a result of the Greta Thunberg effect. And the number of electric vehicles being sold across Europe is growing strongly.
What we liked
Delhi is planning to make public transport free for women. This Thomson Reuters Foundation article looked at what that will mean.
This podcast from the New York Times entitled The Genetic Detectives is gripping.
Also we like this initiative run by the University of Southampton to encourage more greenery into storytelling.
My research shows that solution-based stories, or stories that smuggle in green ideas/characters in the context of an otherwise mainstream story, are more likely to inspire greener behaviours than catastrophic tales of climate change.
Academic Dr Denise Baden
What we heard
How can we on an individual level make changes. I often hear what I can do is just a drop in the ocean, so what’s the use. That’s also an easy cop out. Since becoming more aware myself I’ve changed my behaviour.
Caroline Balhuizen, from the Netherlands, via email
I think you should cover this. The basic idea is to use off-peak (excess) electricity from renewables to synthesise gasoline or other fuels, which would be CO2 neutral. Could then be used to produce electricity at solar farms when there’s no sun, and/or when there’s no wind. Alternatively, use it in serial hybrid cars to avoid needing big batteries (which are expensive and heavy) or even just normal cars.
Jon Antonovics, via email
Where was the Upside?
In Finland, the only EU country where homelessness is falling. It’s also just introduced some of the most ambitious carbon reduction targets in the world.
Also, in the liturgy, which finally exonerated the godhead from any involvement in temptation.
