The Conscious Consumer

 

What is a Conscious Consumer?

A conscious consumer is a person who uses their purchasing power to influence positive change. Organisations can also be conscious consumers. For example, a coffee shop may decide to use only Fair Trade coffee, because they want to ensure their supply chain is fair and equitable.

Conscious consumers consider more than just the best deal when buying goods and services. They also think about the social, environmental and sustainability factors associated with a product and how their purchase can bring about improvement, or at worst, minimise harm. Most conscious consumers will accept that making the right choice sometimes requires sacrifice. They will be prepared to pay a higher price or accept fewer features for a sustainably produced item or service.

Why be a Conscious Consumer?

Most governments, corporations and conspicuous consumers (e.g. the nominally one percent of the world population that holds half the world’s wealth) are incredibly slow to accept their responsibilities regarding climate change, sustainability, environmental degradation and social equity. We, as responsible citizens therefore need to exert whatever influence we have before Earth reaches a state of climatic, ecological and societal collapse.

The writing is already on the wall in this regard.

• The latest indications are that the global average climate may have already warmed by more than 1.5°C since pre-industrial times.

• Species are currently going extinct at a rate many hundreds of times faster than what is considered by scientists to be the normal background rate attributable to natural forces and evolution. This extinction is primarily being driven by human over-exploitation of the planet’s resources.

• Societal collapse and resultant migration crises are already happening in the Americas, Africa and Europe, largely due to over-exploitation of resources and people, and the failure of life-sustaining systems like food and water supply due to changing climate in developing countries.

Individually, our choices may be of minuscule consequence, but collectively we can be powerful. No matter how non-materialistic (or just plain poor) we may be, we all consume something. Those somethings are the goods and services that we need to at least survive, if not thrive.

The current system that seems to prevail globally does not lead to an equitable situation for the majority of Earth’s citizens. Nor does it lead to a good outcome for most of the planet’s living species.

The rich and powerful get rich and powerful by owning and controlling the flow of the services and commodities we all need in a system that ensures the flow of wealth is always upward to that one-percent at the peak of the wealth pyramid. Our political and economic systems are “owned” by the same rich and powerful blocs who strive to ensure that the status quo persists, seemingly regardless of the effects on our ecosystems and the rest of the population (or is population collapse part of a plan?). Only just enough of that wealth flows downwards to keep most of the 99 percent alive, pacified, working and consuming.

 

Chart from Visual Capitalist, data from Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2021. Note that about 1% of the population holds nearly 46% of global wealth, while 55% struggle to get by on merely 1.3% of the planet’s wealth. This chart relates to 2021. Wealth inequality has become even greater since then.

One way we can influence change is by being selective about how we invest our time, that is, how and where we work. By only working for enterprises that are of net benefit, we are working for the greater good. However, this is not always an option and the further down we are in the global wealth pyramid, the fewer our options are, until, at the bottom of the pyramid we may be virtual, or in fact actual, slaves with no options at all.

As conscious consumers we operate on the other side of the coin, exercising influence through our choices when it comes to purchasing goods and services in the course of our daily lives. Being a conscious consumer means weighing up the positive and negative implications of our choices to consume.

It’s Not Just One Thing

Being a conscious consumer is not as simple as it sounds because of the complex relationships that exist between the financial, social, environmental, ethical and political factors involved in the supply chains of the goods and services that we generally take for granted.

Conscious consumerism requires lots of learning and a pragmatic approach. Otherwise, the unintended consequences of our choices can outweigh the benefits. For example, suppose I decide, in the interests of fighting climate change, to only use diesel blended with biofuel. Where does the raw material for that biofuel come from? Let’s learn from a real-life example:

In the 2000s the EU mandated that diesel contain a proportion of biofuel. Biodiesel at the time was mostly derived from rapeseed oil.

• The demand for rapeseed oil shot up.

• A shortage of rapeseed oil for cooking resulted, pricing it out of reach of many who depended on it.

• Substitution with soya bean oil for cooking resulted in a spike in demand for soya beans.

• In response to this demand suppliers increased production, in part by clearing forest in the Amazon basin to make room for soya cropping.

• These clearances displaced indigenous peoples, destroyed wildlife habitat and harmed the climate by converting land that was a carbon sink into a carbon source.

The unintented consequences of this well-intentioned policy did much more harm than good, and the EU has now adjusted its policy, attempting to phase out crop-based biofuels. But the damage is already done.

There are a huge number of organisations and individuals around the globe fighting for noble, essential causes like improving social equity, saving biodiversity, eliminating hunger, preventing global heating, and many others. But it is unsafe to think of these causes in isolation. They are each part of a much bigger picture, and actions must be balanced against their consequences to other areas of concern, or the gains made for one cause may be more than negated when the effects on others is taken into account.

Make Your Choices Count

Don’t hide your conscious consumer choices under a bushel!

Explaining why you made the choice you did is possibly the most influential thing you can do as an individual. One choice will not change the world, but explaining it to a friend may just win another convert to the cause... and so it grows.

There is no need to be pushy. Your conscious consumer choice is likely to stand out from the more crowd-following choices of those around you, prompting discussion. This is your opportunity to explain your reasoning and sow the seeds of thought in other people’s minds.

It’s important not to preach, or to criticise the other person’s choice. Just explain why you made the decision you did and what you are trying to achieve, whether it be sustainability, social equity, support for local business, or whatever.

Equip yourself with factual information from reliable sources. This will give you confidence in your choices and that confidence will convey itself to others through your conversation.

Paralysis by Perfectionism

We don’t have to be perfect; we just need to be better. In fact, perfectionism is impossible. Pretty much every decision we make to consume something will have some negative impact somewhere, directly or indirectly. Conscious consumerism is about doing the least harm and the maximum good through our choices.

Demands for perfectionism are often a weapon of our opponents, frequently phrased as “If you think x is so bad for y, why do you use it at all, hypocrite?”, when there is actually no other viable choice but to use x. Ignore these people. They mostly have an agenda of their own and are unlikely to be convinced by any reasoned argument. Avoid wasting your energy on them, or promoting their views by acknowledging them on social media.

Sometimes, to get by, we have no options but to make less than perfect consumer decisions, so there is no point beating ourselves up when we have to.

Next Steps

Where do we start? My suggestion, is to start small. What do you consume a lot of, or purchase frequently in your daily life? Find out about it. Here are some (but not all)questions you might investigate:

• Who supplies it? What sort of business are you supporting by using that brand? Does it align with your ethics?

• What is the product’s supply chain? Where are the raw materials for it sourced? Under what environmental and workplace standards? Where is is made? How is it transported?

• Is it locally bought? Locally made? Am I supporting local / national prosperity?

• What are its environmental impacts in manufacture, use and disposal. What is its whole life cycle?

• Are there alternatives with more positive / less harmful impacts?

• Do I really need this?

Once you have gone through this process a few times, it will become part of your normal consumer decision-making process.

Your Thoughts

Let me know your thoughts about positive consumerism. Especially:

• Are you going to give it a try?

• What aspects of consumerism concern you?

• What aspect would you like to know more about?

Comments welcome and appreciated.

Want More?

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Wealth and Climate Change

The following table summarising the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the wealthiest 1% of the population compared to the poorest 50% in each of the OECD countries was generated in July 2023 by Bard AI using data from Oxfam. It is important to note that these figures only represent greenhouse gas emissions from consumption. They do not include emissions from production, such as emissions from the manufacture of goods and services. It is contended that, if production emissions were included, the disparity would be even greater.

Carbon Inequality

As you can see, the wealthiest 1% of the population in OECD countries emit significantly more greenhouse gases per capita than the poorest 50%. In the United States, the wealthiest 1% emit 260 tons of greenhouse gases per capita, compared to just 10 tons for the poorest 50%. This disparity is even more pronounced in other countries, such as Norway, where the wealthiest 1% emit 190 tons of greenhouse gases per capita, compared to just 3 tons for the poorest 50%.

This data suggests that the wealthiest 1% of the population are a major contributor to climate change pollution on a per-capita basis. Individually, they are emitting significantly more greenhouse gases per capita than the poorest 50%, and they are doing so through their consumption of goods and services.? 

It is essential that the wealthy reduce their GHG emissions if we are to address the climate crisis. This is because the poorer sectors of an economy are already producing far lower GHG emissions per capita, which means the scope for further reductions is limited. Not only are emission reductions among the less wealthy starting from a lower ceiling, the GHG they do produce is from consumption of a higher proportion of essential goods and services, i.e. consumption that is essential for a reasonable life. Added to that, the less well-off an individual is, the fewer options they have for choosing low-GHG goods and services because, regardless of personal wishes, they are forced to make their decisions based on price rather than what they perceive to be the right choice. 

What can be done

Of course, we all should make what changes we can, but without significant change from the richest sections of society, our impact on GHG reduction will be small. But it is not just down to individuals to make the necessary changes. 

 References / Further reading

Confronting Carbon Inequality - Oxfam

 

Modern Hunter-Gatherers: The Policy of Enough

The Wisdom of Ancient Ways

For the greater part of human history, we have been hunter-gatherers, living off and of the land. We didn’t see ourselves as owning the land, but as part of it and the rest of nature.
Hunter-gatherers are aware of the natural rhythms of the world in which they live. They understand the cycle of seasons and life. They only take what they need and focus on providing for themselves what they need now, rather than accumulating surplus for an unknown future, yet they think ahead to what they are leaving for future generations.
Most importantly, they see themselves as part of the environment in which they live, part of the ecosystem as whole. Compare this to the view of most “modern” humans, living as if we are separated and isolated from the environment and unaware of our ultimate dependence on it.

Three Principles for Modern Application

Cyclical v. Linear Thinking

Hunter-gatherers understand the natural rhythms of their environment and work with them. In our “civilized” world, we fight the seasonal rhythm and demand whatever we want, when we want it, depending on continuing growth to sustain our economies and lifestyles.
Think about seasonal foods. Hunter-gatherers eat seasonally, working with nature to produce food efficiently, whereas most of us expect to get whatever we want all year round. This comes at a cost to the environment because we transport out-of-season foods great distances, or produce them in artificially heated and lit conditions, in both cases, inefficiently consuming natural resources.
Hunter-gatherers also work within longer-term cycles, allowing for regeneration of the natural resources they depend on. For example, they may hunt for a particular food in one area for a season, then work another area the following season, allowing the first to recover and replenish.
The “growth forever” philosophy of the modern era is far from the sustainability thinking of the hunter-gatherer. The linear thinking concept of perpetual growth is out of whack with the fact that we live on an isolated planet in the vacuum of space; a closed system with finite resources with which to sustain us, and natural regenerative systems that can only function at a certain rate to restore the damage we do to it.

Reciprocity and Restraint: The Policy of Enough

Reciprocity and restraint involves taking only what is needed, maintaining a balance with natural systems. This is what I call the policy of enough.
In personal practice, the policy of enough involves distinguishing between what is a genuine need and what is a manufactured want. It also involves thinking about how much is needed, rather than taking more just because it is there. Does anyone remember the toilet paper panic during the pandemic?
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) has a philosophy known as the seventh generation principle. Under this principle, any decision they take must take into consideration the impact that it will have on their descendants seven generations into the future. Seven generations could be about 200 years. Thinking about the consequences of our actions 200 years into the future would profoundly change our way of life and the way we consume.
Unfortunately, our “civilized” society often has trouble seeing past the middle of next week! If we could evolve to think 200 years into the future as the hunter-gatherers do, we would understand the importance of only taking enough for our current needs, leaving enough for our descendants.

Embedded Systems Awareness

Hunter-gatherers are aware that they are part of the ecological and social systems in which they exist. This is in contrast to modern industrialised society where we see nature as a resource to be exploited; something apart from us that we control.
Embedded systems awareness means that when I go to the supermarket to buy a tomato, I am aware of the natural and social systems involved in getting that tomato to the supermarket shelf. I understand that it is out of season, so it was grown in an artificially heated greenhouse and transported a great distance to get to me, burning fossil fuels and producing harmful emissions during that growing and moving. I know about the fungicides and insecticides that kept it looking unnaturally perfect. I am aware of the social conditions in which that tomato is brought to me; the low-waged greenhouse workers, and the trucker driving exhausting hours, not to mention the store worker stocking the shelves. I decide to leave the tomato and buy something else.

The Modern Hunter-Gatherer

Modern hunter-gatherers are the people who are aware of, and are consciously a part of the natural and social systems that they exist in. They know how and where the goods and services they consume are produced, who produces them, who profits, and where they go when done with. They make their choices based on that knowledge, refusing to accept those things that are going to leave a worse world for their descendants to live in. They know that every decision they make now will have a consequence for the future, and decide in the future’s favour. They are aware that Planet Earth is a closed system, finite in its ability to provide resources and in its ability to absorb harm.
Modern hunter-gatherers are aware that health, prosperity and wellbeing are intimately connected to the state of the larger systems they are embedded in. This awareness leads to different choices, not from guilt or obligation, but from real understanding of that interconnectedness and the consequences of their choices “to the seventh generation”.
I am trying to live by that philosophy and I’m hoping that some of my readers will see the value of doing so too. I would like to see a movement of like-minded modern hunter-gatherers grow and prosper, forming local, national and global communities, supporting each other in a common aim of protecting the wellbeing of humanity and the natural world of which we are one part.
In future articles, I’ll be looking at how this growth may happen, how the social tensions such a movement will create may be overcome and what the practical outcomes might be.
In the meantime, reader, what do you think? Are you on board? What challenges, what solutions do you see? Your comments below will help me to develop this theme in future articles.

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A Plague of People?

Alien Ecologists 

What would alien visitors studying Earth's ecology for the first time conclude? Let's stop thinking about ourselves as something special for a while and instead, think of ourselves as just another species of mammal. Where do we fit in Earth's ecological system?

Where did we fit?

Before we discovered how to make tools, we probably sat somewhere in the lower-mid part of the predator hierarchy. Technology changed that. 

Once we developed clubs, spears and arrows we moved up the predator ladder. Weapons and co-operative hunting techniques enabled us to kill animals much larger and more dangerous than our unarmed selves. It is no coincidence that, wherever we went, the giant mammals that once ruled the land died out. Technology continued to advance to the point where, today, we are the apex predator, all across the globe.

The Agriculture Problem

The beginnings of agriculture seems to be the domestication of pigs in Mesopotamia around 11,000BC. Prior to that, humans were hunter-gatherers and as such would have had relatively little impact on the landscape. They lived in and with their natural environment.

As agriculture extended to other crops and livestock, and the population grew, farming spread across the land. Today, 50% of the habitable land on the planet is occupied by it. That is 50% of the habitable land denied to the natural species that went before. 50% of the available land where the original plant and animal occupants are excluded and usually exterminated as pests.

The Population Problem

As I write this, the Earth's population is estimated at a little above 7.7 billion people and increasing. By the end of this century, the UN predicts it will be just under 11 billion. As compared to other mid-sized mammals, this is a huge number. For example, estimations for other common widely distributed species range in the low-mid tens of millions for dolphins up to about a billion and a half for domestic cattle (and they are only there because of us). As for one of our closer animal relations, the chimpanzee, there are only somewhere between 172,000 and 300,000 left.

The effects of us

In what is a geological instant, Earth has gone from being a place of abundance to one of all manner of threats to its many species of flora and fauna. To name a few, these include:

• Being hunted/harvested to extinction.
• Desertification
• Loss of habitat or food sources due to competition from humans.
• Pollution.
• Conversion of natural habitats for other purposes by humans.
• Deliberate poisoning by humans to prevent competition for food sources (i.e. crops).

And I haven't even mentioned the biggie; climate change, which is significantly contributed to by that one species; us. Sorry, but the ever-growing body of science on that subject is now pretty much conclusive.

The Alien Solution

Our alien visitors would see the great numbers of humans compared to the populations of other species. They would also see the vast areas of Earth damaged by agriculture. 

From their observations, our alien visitors would likely conclude Earth's ecosystem is way out of balance. I think they would go so far as to conclude that humans were present in plague proportions.
Given humans' propensity for driving other species to extinction, devouring Earth's resources as if there was an infinite supply (there isn't) and generating all sorts of harm to the planet's biosphere, our alien visitors could justifiably conclude we were a pest species.
Would our alien visitors then conclude that they would be doing Earth a service by exterminating us, so that the millions of other species of life on Earth could survive?

Looking at Earth from the perspective of all its life forms, what have we done to make it a better place?

Will more CO2 in the air make plants grow faster and give us more food?

Recently, one of my acquaintances, in a discussion about climate change, put forward the argument that more carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere might be a good thing, because it encouraged plant growth and hence should result in more food being available. I didn't have a ready answer, so I asked Bing AI for help. The following is the (heavily edited and reference-checked) result.

Most educated people now accept that CO2 is a gas that makes the Earth warmer. This is because CO2 traps heat from the sun and keeps it from escaping back into space; a condition called the greenhouse effect. Humans have been adding CO2 to the air by burning coal, oil, and gas for energy since the beginning of the industrial age in the early 19th century. This was carbon dioxide that has been sequestered deep in the Earth over a period of hundreds of millions of years, gradually bringing the atmosphere to what it was like a couple of centuries ago. Since then, we have returned massive amounts of this CO2 back to the atmosphere all at once, geologically speaking, with the results we are beginning to see right now. This dumping of CO2 back into the atmosphere has caused the Earth's temperature to rise by about 1 degree Celsius since the 1800s. This doesn't sound like much, but it has a big impact on the weather, the oceans, the ice, and the living things on our planet.

However, CO2 is not only a gas that makes the Earth warmer. It's also a gas that plants need to grow. Plants use CO2, water, and sunlight to make their own food in a process called photosynthesis. When plants do photosynthesis, they also make oxygen that we breathe. So more CO2 in the air means more food for plants, right? And more food for plants means more food for us, right?

Well, not so fast. The answer is not that simple. Some scientists have done experiments to see how plants react to more CO2 in the air. They have found that some plants do grow faster and bigger with more CO2, but some plants do not. It depends on what kind of plant it is, and where it grows. For example, wheat, rice, and beans like more CO2, but corn and sugarcane do not. Also, some plants can get more nitrogen from the air than others, which helps them grow better with more CO2, but some plants cannot.

More CO2 in the air does not mean only more food for plants. It also means other changes in the environment that affect plant growth. For example, more CO2 in the air means higher air and ocean temperatures, which upset normal weather patterns. This results in abnormal droughts, flooding and winds in different places. In turn, this results in less, or excessive, water in the soil, changes to soil chemistry, more bugs or diseases that damage plants, and more pollution that harms plant cells. These changes can make plant growth worse or better. It depends on how much conditions change and how these changes interact with each other.

So what does this mean for our food supply? Some scientists have used computer modelling to try to predict how much food we will have in the future with more CO2 in the air. They have used different models that use different data and assumptions. They have also used different scenarios that imagine different human responses and behaviours as conditions change. Unsurprisingly, different results have been found depending on what model and scenario is used. Some models say we will have more food in some places, but less in others. Some say we will have less food everywhere while others say we will have enough food for everyone if we share it well (not a likely proposition if history is any indication).

So what can we do about it? The answer is not easy either. But one thing we can do is to reduce our CO2 emissions by minimising fossil fuel use and utilising more renewable energy sources like solar or wind power. This can help slow down global warming and climate change and give us more time to adapt to them. We can also protect and restore our land ecosystems like forests, grasslands, and wetlands that store carbon and help regulate the climate. This can help reduce CO2 in the air and provide other benefits like clean water and greater biodiversity. And we can improve our farming practices by using less water and fertiliser, and by adopting more regenerative methods. We may also need to change what we produce, and where, to adapt to changes to conditions and make more efficient and environment-friendly use of the land. This may in turn require us to change our diets to match what the Earth is still capable of producing.

My own opinion, supported by the evidence of recent exceptional droughts, floods, hurricanes and similar climatic events in a number of the world's food-producing areas is that more CO2 in the atmosphere will result in continued warming and further devastation of food crops, resulting in a significant decline in food production.

References

Kimball BA (1983) Carbon dioxide and agricultural yield: an assemblage and analysis of 430 prior observations. Agron J. 75:779–788

Ainsworth EA and Long SP (2005) What have we learned from 15 years of free-air CO₂ enrichment (FACE)? A meta-analytic review of the responses of photosynthesis transpiration and yield to rising CO₂.

New Phytol. 165:351–372

Hättenschwiler S et al (2011) Atmospheric CO₂ enrichment of terrestrial ecosystems – retrospect

and prospect. Crit Rev Plant Sci. 30:1–40

Parry ML et al (2004) Effects of climate change on global food production under SRES emissions

and socio-economic scenarios. Glob Environ Change. 14:53–67

Müller C et al (2014) Implications of climate mitigation for future agricultural production.

Environ Res Lett. 9:124018

Valin H et al (2014) The future of food demand: understanding differences

in global economic models. Agric Econ. 45:51–67

Myers SS et al (2014) Increasing CO₂ threatens human nutrition.

Nature. 510:139–142

Smith P et al (2013) How much land-based greenhouse gas mitigation can be achieved without compromising food security and environmental goals?

Source: Conversation with Bing, 18/05/2023

(1) NASA at Your Table: Climate Change Impacts on Crop Growth. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/esnt/2021/nasa-at-your-table-climate-change-and-its-environmental-impacts-on-crop-growth/.

(2) Study: Global plant growth surging alongside carbon dioxide. https://www.noaa.gov/news/study-global-plant-growth-surging-alongside-carbon-dioxide.

Do volcanoes contribute to a heating climate?

Why I'm asking 

Over on Twitter, someone complained that I shouldn't be moaning about farmers contributing to climate change. I should be worrying about increased volcanism, because this was a much bigger problem for global warming. So I thought I'd check my facts.

I put the question to my Microsoft friend, Bing and it pointed me to the US Geological Service, which had this to say.

In a Nutshell

The USGS provided some interesting facts:

• Volcanoes do have an influence on climate change.
• Ash from volcanoes has little impact on climate change because they stay in the atmosphere for a short time; days to weeks.
• Volcanic gasses such as sulphur dioxide can cause global cooling.
• Volcanic carbon dioxide can potentially contribute to global warming.

So, we can discount ash as a problem for climate either way, but what about sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide?

Sulphur Dioxide

Sulphur dioxide has the biggest impact on climate because it is quickly converted to sulphuric acid, which then condenses into sulphate aerosols in the stratosphere. These fine particles are reflective, resulting in more of the Sun's heat being reflected back into space and resulting in cooling of the atmosphere beneath.

In 1991 Mount Pinatubo in the Phillipines erupted, putting out the biggest sulphur dioxide cloud in living memory. This lowered the global temperature for three years, by up to about half a degree Celsius.

Carbon Dioxide

Volcanoes can indeed emit significant amounts of carbon dioxide. Mount St Helens in the USA emitted about 10,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 9 hours when it erupted in 1980. This seems like a lot, but it takes mankind only 2.5 hours to do the same. 

While large scale eruptions are noteworthy, they are intermittent, whereas our carbon dioxide emissions go on continuously. Scientists estimated that, in one year, mankind would cause carbon dioxide emissions 80 to 270 times greater than all the Earth's volcanoes combined.

Conclusion

I think you know where this is heading.

• Throughout history, mankind has only observed widespread cooling as a result of vulcanism.
• The mechanism for this is sulphate aerosols in the stratosphere reflecting the Sun's heat back into space.
• Volcanic carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, but its effect is overridden by the stronger effects of the sulphur dioxide.
• The amount of carbon dioxide emitted by volcanoes is very small compared to that emitted by human activities.

So no, volcanoes do not contribute significantly to a heating climate. Current evidence suggests the reverse. Volcanism generally results in a short term cooling effect.

Other reading:

Eos, Vol. 92, No. 24, 14 June 2011 - Volcanic Versus Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide 

Facebook and my Data

 I am a bit ambivalent about on-line privacy. Most of us happily sign up to Facebook, Google, Twitter and the like without a thought as to how a free service can earn so much revenue.  Like most people, I love a bargain, but then, at times I get worried about what these free services are doing with my information.

So, how do these companies earn so much when they are charging users nothing? They do it by selling the on-line version of you and me. Our digital lives are their product, not the services they give us for free. Social media companies give us free services so that we willingly sign up to them with hardly a thought to their (invariably multi-page) user and privacy agreements. These agreements permit them to vacuum up every bit of our on-line searching, browsing, emailing, messaging and social history. They then use this information to profile us and sell targeted advertising, or to sell on to third parties for their various uses. Is there another way?

I would like to see an equivalent to Facebook, Google and the like that offered similar services on a paid subscription basis that did not retain, analyse or sell my information for advertising or other purposes. Unfortunately, this has been tried before, and it failed. We seemingly would rather give away our privacy than a little of our money.

Another alternative would be for the social media companies to sell us a subscription-based option that was advertising-free and did not accumulate or sell our data. Let's take a look at Facebook.

In the year ending 3rd quarter 2019, Facebook's revenue was almost US$67 billion. As at the end of the quarter, they had 2.45 billion active monthly users. If my calculations are correct, this works out at about US$27.35 per user, globally.

I, for one, would be willing to pay that much to Facebook if I could be assured that my data would be secure, would not be trawled and that I would not have to put up with advertisements. Will this ever happen? Not likely.

Unless forced to, Facebook is not likely to bother to spend the money needed to add the ability to differentiate between non-paying and paying users. They would also be concerned that allowing some users to opt out of data-mining would water down their offering to their real customers, the advertisers, even though they would be recouping any lost revenue from that source through subscriptions.

So, come on, someone. Start up a Facebook alternative that offers a secure, ad-free subscription based option (and is a little more user-friendly) and I'm in!