Readers may have heard of the “15 minute city”. While the idea of a human-scale city, planned so everyone has what they need locally has long been a dream of a number of thought-leaders, the idea rose in popularity during the pandemic. With a chunk of the workforce staying at home, the vision of self-contained communities seemed appealing to everyone. 

But an article at Spiked warns that we need to think again. They follow the example of Oxford in the UK where authorities would like to divvy the city into “15 minute districts”, fining people who drive outside of their allotted precincts too often. It has definitely been a silver lining to the pandemic lockdowns that we got to know our communities a little better, however lockdown ideology applied to all aspects of life is tyrannical. 

In other climate news:

Britain’s government “nudge unit” thinks banks should track people’s carbon footprint through their spending. Something similar is already happening in Australia.

Also in Australia, children in schools have been given “cricket chips” as snacks. One parent said she didn’t know about it until her child told her. That might be by design.. 

Not to be outdone, ShakeShack is working on a bug burger.