🍪 W42 - 🐄 The 5 biggest threats to our natural world
The 5 biggest threats to our natural world, Single-tasking is the way to go & Facebook’s AI research to see, hear, and remember everything you do
Hi,
First of all, welcome to the new subscribers, I’m really happy my newsletters will be received in your inbox.
Today marks already the 11th edition of your favourite Wednesday bite, with again some bite-sized knowledge to make you popular at dinner conversations and bar chats.
In this edition:
The 5 biggest threats to our natural world
Single-tasking is the way to go
Facebook’s AI research to see, hear and remember everything you do
And some additional 🕺 Fun, 🍞 Crumbs & 🧠 Brain game
Happy reading.
Regards,
Steven
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6 min to chew through this one.
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① 🐄 The 5 biggest threats to our natural world
The world’s wildlife population has decreased by more than two-thirds since 1970 and is still continues to decrease even more. This week Cop15 talks in Kunming will need to lay the groundwork to stop the loss of nature.
So what are the biggest threats?
1. Changes in land and sea use
We all know the tropical deforestation, but one lesser-known destruction is actually at the same level: converting grasslands into cropland, to make way for soya bean, corn and wheat farming.
More than a third of the world’s land surface and nearly 75% of freshwater resources are now devoted to crop or livestock production.
Food crop production globally has increased by about 300% since 1970, despite the negative environmental impacts.
Reducing food waste and eating less meat would help cut the amount of land needed for farming, while researchers say improved management of existing croplands and utilising what is already farmed as best as possible would reduce further expansion.
2. Direct exploitation of natural resources
The actions and effects of hunting, fishing and logging on to the extraction of oil, gas, coal and water can often be seen, however, with unsustainable groundwater extraction, people don’t see it and they don’t understand the fragility of it.
About half the world’s population relies on groundwater for drinking water and it helps sustain 40% of irrigation systems for crops.
Research indicates that pumping the world’s most extracted resource – water – is causing significant damage to the planet’s ecosystems.
“Groundwater is slow because it has to flow through rocks. If you extract water today, it will impact the streamflow maybe in the next five years, in the next 10 years, or in the next decades.”
In April, the largest ever assessment found that up to 20% of global groundwater wells were at risk of running dry.
Millions of wells around the world could run dry with even modest declines in groundwater levels. And that, of course, has cascading implications for livelihoods and access to reliable and convenient water for individuals and ecosystems.
3. The climate crisis
Our biosphere – the thin film of life on the surface of our planet – is being destabilised by temperature change. On land, rains are altering, extreme weather events are more common, and ecosystems are more flammable. Associated changes, including flooding, sea-level rise, droughts and storms, are having hugely damaging impacts on biodiversity and its ability to support us.
I already touched upon this in some previous articles:
🔗 🌊 Using seawater and renewable energy to decrease CO2 levels and greenhouse gas emissions
🔗 ⚗️ Are millions of CO2 sucking machines enough to save the climate crisis?
Starting on Sunday COP26 or the United Nations climate change conference will take place in Glasgow, which many believe will be the last chance to get runaway climate change under control.
4. Pollution
Marine plastic pollution, in particular, has increased tenfold since 1980 – affecting 44% of seabirds – but air, water and soil pollution are all on the rise in some areas.
The biggest and likely the most hidden one is nitrogen pollution slowly killing the biodiversity, as not all plants and wildlife can coop with increased nitrogen in air and soil.
About 80% of nitrogen used by humans – through food production, transport, energy and industrial and wastewater processes – is wasted and enters the environment as pollution.
“In terms of a nitrogen footprint, the most intensive thing that you can eat is meat. The more meat you eat, the more nitrogen you’re putting into the environment.”
5. Invasive species
20% of the Earth’s surface is at risk with importing plants and animals not common to the areas killing of the indigenous plant and wildlife.
Like the Asian giant hornets taking over the US and killing the indigenous bee population.
Source: The Guardian - 14 min read
② ✔️ Single-tasking is the way to go
Are we really that efficient when it comes to multitasking? In short, no.
According to recent research, only 2% to 2.5% of the population can effectively multitask
You might think you’re getting more done through multitasking, you may be taking longer to complete tasks because of constant context switching.
Multitasking can also cause brain shrinkage, short-term memory loss and unhealthy stress, which in turn can lead to high blood pressure, generalized anxiety, depression, and other health issues.
Why Single-tasking?
Besides, being beneficial to your health and productivity, its key benefits include:
Increased retention of information
Decreased errors and mistakes
Lower stress
Encourages a flow state
Reduces frequency of directed attention fatigue
Increases mindfulness
But optimal monotasking takes practice to master, so you need to integrate its principles into your daily work and home life.
Some tips and tricks
1. Adjust your browser behaviour
Open as few tabs as possible as more will encourage multitasking
Try to use a different browser for work and leisure, as doing it with one might distract you from working
Block websites you don’t access to during work hours
Disable web push notifications of when your favourite websites publish new articles
2. Use the Pomodoro Technique
The technique requires you to concentrate on a single task or “deep work” without distraction for 25 minutes before taking a break of 5 minutes.
You can even use it as a complete time management technique. Divide the task you need to do in chunks of 25 minutes and plan each one in your calendar.
3. Use noise-cancelling technology
To completely remove external distractions, like noise, use noise-cancelling headphones. Or play focus music which may also improve your focus and productivity.
Source: Fast Company - 5 min read
③ 🔬 Facebook’s AI research to see, hear and remember everything you do
Facebook is running a new research project (Ego4D) on AI systems that are constantly analyzing peoples’ lives using first-person video, recording what they see, do, and hear in order to help them with everyday tasks.
They want to develop skills like an “episodic memory” (answering questions like “where did I leave my keys?”) and “audio-visual diarization” (remembering who said what when).
They also want to look into other areas that AI is struggling with today:
Forecasting - What am I likely to do next?
Hand and object manipulation - What am I doing?
Social interaction: Who is interacting with whom?
All this would create datasets and benchmarks to spur development in the field of AI.
The dataset for this research is the biggest of its kind ever created, and Facebook partnered with 13 universities around the world to collect the data. 3,205 hours of footage were already recorded by 855 participants living in nine different countries.
In the end, the technology might not be used in wearable cameras only, but also for home assistant robots, which also rely on first-person cameras to navigate the world around them.
See this video explaining the Ego4D Research project.
Concerns towards privacy
Although the tasks that Facebook outlines certainly seem practical, the company’s interest in this area will worry many.
With recording everything people do, huge privacy implications arise. The hardware not only records footage but analyzes and transcribes it, turning wearers into walking surveillance machines. And what about people who don’t want to be recorded?
And we know that Facebook’s record on privacy is abysmal, as well as showing repeatedly that the company values growth and engagement above users’ well-being.
Facebook expects that privacy safeguards would be introduced further down the line, but for now, such safeguards are only hypothetical.
Source: The Verge - 5 min read
🕺 Fun
Having played the adventure game Uncharted (Playstation’s counterpart of Tomb Raider) I’m delighted to see they are making a movie out of it with a great cast.
🤞 Here’s to hoping the movie will be just as good as the games.
🍞 Crumbs
Elon Musk’s Boring Company gets green light for Las Vegas tunnel system
Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name
Google Calendar’s new focus blocks can auto-decline meetings for you
Scientists took the first steps toward pig-to-human kidney transplants
The US military has started testing robot dogs on patrol duty
Google launches new features to help users shrink their carbon footprints
Worldcoin wants to scan eyeballs in exchange for crypto
Instagram announced a new feature called “Collabs” copying TikTok’s duets
Google charges more than twice as much as its competitors for ad deals
Facebook is looking to rebrand its name
🧠 Brain game
Do you know which brand is considered the most valuable in 2021, and which one is the fastest growing?
Brand value = a brand’s total financial value X proportional value
Answer:
Most valuable: Amazon $683.9B
Fastest growing: Tesla +275%, just having passed 1B market cap on 25/10.
See Visual Capitalist for more information.
Questions? Feedback? Leave a comment 😉
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