profile

Clarifying Complex Ideas, LLC

What a Time to Be Alive, Eh? | Sustainable Content #6

Published about 1 month ago • 2 min read

​

Grappling with what's next

I start drafting this newsletter in my head several days before I start writing anything down. I spent last weekend in Pennsylvania and let's just say that what I was drafting wasn't exactly optimistic. And here we are.

There's a certain irony to the fact that I'm releasing a book about climate action two weeks after the election. Timing is everything.

​I'm going to quote Octavia Butler's A Few Rules For Predicting the Future: "There's no single answer that will solve all our future problems. There's no magic bullet. Instead there are thousands of answers — at least. You can be one of them if you choose to be." That's what I'm doing with Sustainable Content. I'm trying to help us be one of the answers.

And now, possibly more than ever, we need to use our leverage wherever we can. Positive change isn't going to come from regulation or lack thereof. It's going to come from us, in the thousand little things we do every day.

"Our organizations are the places where we have the most leverage. If I, as an individual, become a digital content ascetic—no more streaming video, podcasts, or apps—I’m dramatically altering my leisure time with no measurable change for the planet. If I make a change at a client—reducing file sizes and energy needs forthousands or millions of people—I’m exerting an influence that can result in tons of emissions avoided."

 

Alisa Bonsignore, from the forthcoming book
​Sustainable Content: How to Measure and Mitigate the Carbon Footprint of Digital Data ​
(Available 19 November 2024)

What I've been reading

I have to admit, I have been reading very little this week. Hopefully I'll have more to share with you next week after my brain bounces back a little.

​How the election will impact climate. Spoiler: it's not an optimistic read.

​"The antidote to doom is doing." A lot of people don't realize that we're not facing scientific or technology limitations as we try to turn things around. The barriers to reducing climate impacts are entirely political and economic.

The Multisolving Institute offers 5 'no regrets' actions for tumultuous times. Nurture connections. Prioritize health. Invest in equity. Simplify. Continue learning, and share what you learned.

Shameless and unsolicited cross-promotion of good stuff!

This week I want to hype Mary Conquest, a fractional content strategy consultant from Canada.
Mary knows how to turn content into a business asset. She's also one of my favorite people. If you're a small team looking to approach your content more strategically, Mary is the one to call.

📖

Sustainable Content

Coming soon: buy the book

🎤

Speaking Engagements

​Book Alisa for your event​

🗒️

Consulting

​Reduce your Scope 3 emissions​

Alisa Bonsignore

Founder, Strategist, and Author

People are saying good things about Sustainable Content

"Bonsignore’s book explains the issues clearly and shows that computing the environmental costs of our work is not only feasible, but ethically necessary. Bonsignore shows that while climate change is the most wicked of problems, creating content sustainably is an ethical and financially beneficial response."

- Russell Willerton, PhD. Author of Plain Language and Ethical Action: A Dialogic Approach to Technical Content in the Twenty-First Century

Clarifying Complex Ideas, LLC

Talking about sustainable content: how to measure and mitigate the carbon footprint of digital data.

Read more from Clarifying Complex Ideas, LLC
The Clarifying Complex Ideas, LLC logo

Is your bank funding fossil fuels? We're in the process of selling our home this week, coincidentally at the same time that our mortgage lender decided to sell our loan. This has caused dramatic and ridiculous consequences, and no end to my stress. But even if we hadn't been in a high-drama situation, I would have been pissed off. The loan was sold to JPMorgan Chase — a top financier of fossil fuel investments. This is incredibly frustrating, because borrowers really don't have any say in who...

6 days ago • 2 min read
The Clarifying Complex Ideas, LLC logo, a dark blue-green sunburst.

Finding things to be thankful for It's Thanksgiving week here in the United States. It's also a week after the COP 29 U.N. climate conference meetings in Baku, Azerbaijan. November has been a fraught month for climate folks, and many are approaching the end of the year with an air of defeat. What could we possibly have to be thankful for? I am thankful for you. I think that my readers are curious people who believe in stepping up where we can. And that's important. I have a little anecdotal...

13 days ago • 2 min read
The Clarifying Complex Ideas, LLC sunburst logo.

"What happens now?" Book launch day has come and gone, and with lots of help from all of you, Sustainable Content became an Amazon #1 bestseller. I am stunned and humbled. Thank you for your support. Also, I highly recommend writing a book if you want to reconnect with people you've lost touch with. It was great to hear from everyone. Most of the launch-adjacent conversations came around to the same basic theme: Given the future of the U.S. government and the expected rollback of a variety of...

20 days ago • 3 min read