Using Blockchain to Fight Environmental Challenges

Blockchain Solutions for Environmental Challenges

Environmental Challenges

For a long time, I was groping through the 9-to-5 office life, as if I was in a movie battling dragons made up of deadlines and endless emails. But in reality, my "dragons" were more like those inflatable advertising balloons in front of car dealerships, and my "sword" was nothing more than a ballpoint pen. One day, while I was trying to beautify a spreadsheet to the point that even the computer sighed, I asked myself, "Was I born to do this?". I decided it was time for a change. I wanted to find work that brought not just money, but also joy and passion.

Starting a new journey was not easy. I faced fears and financial uncertainties, but I realized that the feeling of doing what I love every day is far more valuable than the safety of sticking with a monotonous job. Now, my work involves analyzing and writing about stories and ideas that genuinely excite me. Every morning, I wake up eager for the day's work ahead.

And I want you to know that anyone has the opportunity to seek and do the work they love. You may need to take risks, and there might be moments when you feel like you're making a big leap into the unknown, but I believe it's worth it. If you find yourself stuck in a job that doesn't bring happiness, remember, you are not tied down. The world is vast and full of opportunities for you to explore. Although the process might not be quick or easy, you can change and find work that makes you feel alive rather than just existing.

Life is too short for us to endure a job every day. If I, someone who found desolation in an Excel spreadsheet, can change, so can you. We have the means and face the need for less growth, less work, and to direct our energy towards other things. It's time we fulfilled the long-standing promise of industry: that technology would allow for a significant reduction in the workweek and usher in an "era of leisure.". Unfortunately, leisure has come to imply frivolity and indulgence, clashing with the urgent needs of the planet and humanity in this changing era. There's a vast amount of important work to be done. Forests need to be replanted, the sick cared for, and a planet healed. I believe we will be very busy indeed.

We imagine a world where people work for love, not money. What would you do in such an economy? Would you rehabilitate a toxic waste dump? Be a "big sister" to troubled teens? Create a safe haven for victims of human trafficking? Return endangered species to the wild? Organize gardens in inner-city neighborhoods? Perform in public? Help veterans reintegrate into civilian life? What would your life, your true life, look like? Underneath the alternative lives we are paid to live lies a real life, your life.

Firstly, why do we need garbage collectors? Why is there so much trash to collect? We consume too much single-use junk, don't compost food scraps, and have too much non-reusable or recyclable packaging. Single-use products and packaging can be that way because they are artificially cheap. Most of the costs of resource extraction and industrial processing to make packaging are externalized (moved away from where we live), as well as the costs of landfilling and incineration. When these costs are internalized, producing single-use items becomes less economical, and items like reusable containers have an economic logic that reinforces their environmental logic. Similar considerations apply to composting leftover food because we will have an economic incentive to garden at home when the hidden subsidies (transport, water, chemicals...) for a far-off super-agriculture are removed. Truly, there's no reason we should be producing so much waste.

"Lowly," that is, in our perception. Any job that isn't brutal towards others can be done with dignity, joy, or love. The evolution of garbage collection will differ in detail from the evolution of factory work, cleaning services, supermarket cashiering, or any other extremely unpleasant but crucial job for the world. Each will be reduced or eliminated in different ways. Small farms, mixed cultivation eliminates much of the drudgery of heavy labor. Small lodgings, bed-and-breakfasts, and couch-surfing reduce the need for professional hotel cleaning staff. Technology, mechanization, and robotics will continue to eliminate assembly line labor. Encouraging the production of fewer but more durable goods reduces manufacturing work and increases maintenance and repair work, which is less monotonous and more satisfying. Industrial design will have more motivation to minimize monotony rather than cost because people will work from desire rather than necessity.

Few would be willing to work on an assembly line for eight hours, pick endless rows of tomatoes, or clean toilets all day unless they felt they had no other choice. We will give people another choice; therefore, the economy will evolve to eliminate those roles. We don't need to eliminate them entirely. Washing dishes, cleaning

toilets, and heavy labor are only tedious and lowly when we do them for too long. I've worked on my brother's small organic farm and with a small construction crew. The work was never burdensome because we did a variety of tasks on a small scale. Of course, there were challenging tasks, like digging three rows of potatoes or splitting two hundred fence posts, but these weren't enduring trials, and they often came with jokes or moments of reflection. Doing a season of garbage collection a few hours a day, washing dishes, flipping burgers, or cleaning hotel rooms isn't that burdensome. In fact, there are times in our lives when we might seek rest through routine physical labor. I've had such times myself, when repetitive manual labor was a comfort to my soul.

The significant reduction in what is called "work" today won't leave us idle or wasting our time in frivolous enjoyment. As I've mentioned before, human needs are finite, but we have needs that in a sense are infinite. The need to connect with nature, to love, play, and create, to understand and be understood, to connect with the community, to help and give. 

Who will clean up the trash, then? So, could a modern economy with precise division of labor exist without roles like toilet scrubbing and trash collecting? Let's delve deeper into this, specifically looking at one typical lowly job, trash collection.

Firstly, why do we need trash collectors? Why is there so much trash to collect? Because we consume too much single-use junk, don't compost food scraps, and have too much non-reusable or recyclable packaging. The evolution of garbage collection, like the evolution of any other unpleasant but crucial job for the world, will differ. Small farms eliminate much heavy labor. Small lodgings and technology continue to eliminate monotonous labor. Encouraging fewer but more durable goods reduces manufacturing work and increases satisfying maintenance and repair work.

Few would willingly work monotonously unless feeling no other choice. We'll provide other choices, thus the economy will evolve to eliminate those roles. We need not eliminate them entirely. Tasks like washing dishes or cleaning can be unburdensome if not prolonged. There are times in life when repetitive manual labor can be a solace.

The significant reduction in "work" won't leave us idle. We have infinite needs like connecting with nature, love, play, and creation. We've been trying to satisfy infinite needs with finite accumulations. The contraction of the monetary realm would be a welcome change, offering us a world where we work for love, not money. What would your life, your real life, look like if not constrained by the necessity to earn a living? Below the alternative lives we're paid to live lies a real life, your life.