by Will Schreiber

Fruit flies and climate change

I tried to make Water Kefir a few months ago. It was meh. There weren’t so many bubbles. It tasted like vinegary water. I spilled sugar over the counter. There were lots of fruit flies swarming around.

I got sick of the daily morning feedings and stopped after a week of failure. I wasn’t seeing progress.

When I get an easy and early win, I’m more likely to stick with something - like seeing a small pace improvement when starting to jog, or having an initial loaf of bread come out edible.

I’m increasingly optimistic that the pandemic’s collective cleansing of our air will similarly nudge us forward. The difference in pictures of downtown LA and London and Hong Kong pre-and-post COVID are breathtaking - and to think it’s due to merely not driving combustion engines to and from work every day!

There’s a survey of 200 Brits that just came out. Two months ago, 34 of them were planning on buying an electric car. This week, 90 more people said they were considering buying an electric car after seeing how clean the air could be by reducing car emissions.1

It’s like that feeling when you sit down at a desk covered in books and paper. “I need to clean this crap up. I can’t think.” So you put the books away, pour out the mugs, and shred the paper. “Wow, what a difference.” Then you turn and look at the closet. Before you know it, all your clothes are on the bed, the pots and pans are out of the kitchen cabinets and you’re re-organizing your entire life.

I’m hoping we just cleaned off the desk, and we can now see what’s possible.


  1. https://electrek.co/2020/04/09/study-pandemic-lockdowns-are-encouraging-more-consumers-to-buy-electric-cars/