How would you describe the Sixth Extinction to a friend who has never heard of it?
The Sixth Extinction, also called Holocene extinction, is a name to indicate the extinction period of species that had occurred in the Holocene epoch which is around 10,000 BCE. This event was mainly caused by human activity.
After reviewing the “About page” on the what’s missing site, what is one species that you learned about on this site that has gone extinct?
The species I learnt is Asian Cranes. Cranes belong to Bird Family and this specie had suffered reduction in their geographic distributions and population numbers. Because they are so rare so that they are exploited for trade and commerce. Meanwhile, they are consider a bad issue for agricultural resources. Therefore, this specie is endangered on the earth.
– What did you learn on the “what you can do” page?
I learnt I should eat less meat on the “what you can do” page. Because people need to grow 2 to 5 times more grain for feeding the livestock than feed human directly. If people can eat less meat, over a billion people could be fed.
What do you think of this site as an artist’s project?
Personally I really like the idea of the artist to make the environment site as an artist’s project. The black background and the small events make the entire site looks like the Milky Way. Meanwhile, this site clearly depicted every place on the earth and their major events. The process of looking at site seems like traveling in the universe.
1) Which of the eight strategies does it already meet?
The object I want to choose is Airpods. They are the newest wireless earphone made by Apple Company. As they are wireless and much lighter than the last version, the Airpods are easy to carry and use. I often use them when I am doing my homework, drawing and even running. However, the Airpods is such a delicate electronic device that it contained a lot of metal inside. According to the Okala EcoDesign Strategy Wheel shown on the class, the item Airpods already meet the strategies “Innovation” as the designer already rethink how to provide the benefit for customers. Secondly, they meet the strategy “Manufacturing Innovation” and “Reduced Distribution Impacts” because this small item already minimize manufacturing waste and reduce product and packing weight after design.Thirdly, they meet the strategy “Optimized End-of -Life as this is a design for fast manual and automated disassembly.
2) What are 2-3 ideas you have for how this object can re-designed as an EcoDesign?
Personally, I do not know electronic device very much. However, from my perspective, I think the plastic cover could consider to switch into other material such as Gypsum or other material that will not cause negative influence on our environment. Meanwhile, the Apple company could start a program for recycling the old electronic device so that people would later there old Apple device together for recycling.
