Soot [none/use name]

Exercise, board games, write, read a book you already own, socialise with housemates/neighbours, do any of a billion hobbies, do anything where you only have to walk to the place. Go for a walk, go foraging, sit in the sun, do some gardening, plant some seeds from your own fruit, volunteer somewhere local, draw stuff, craft stuff, daydream, do some puzzles, do some DIY repairs.

I’m not saying these things are ideal, some will be more possible than others due to circumstances. But I mean it did take two minutes to come up with that list of (typically) enjoyable stuff to do in your leisure time that has net neutral or even net positive environment impact.

I don’t think it’s good nor correct to say the phone usage is the second best possible ‘leisure’ thing you can do with your life for environmental impact. Depending on how granular one got, it wouldn’t even make #100.

This is the funny thing, Capitalism basically ensures, even if it were magically practical, it still wouldn’t work. Even in utopia, where everyone was super-pooper efficient and saved 99% electricity usage overnight, just one profit-seeking business (and they’re all profit seeking businesses) would buy up all the cheap electricity, use their enormous energy advantage to make a bazillion dollars, and use so much power that we’d go right back to 100% (or more) electricity consumption.

The narrative of the ‘if every individual did <x>’ is pure myth. Systemic problems can only be solved by systemic solutions.

I do agree. But calling the UK Orwellian is kind of funny, given Orwell’s 1984 is largely, if not mostly, based on the UK:

• Like Winston, Orwell worked in the UK as a war propagandist, and lamented that he constantly had to lie and censor facts, but thought it worth it to defeat the Nazis.
• The ‘ministries’ were entirely based on the UK’s, especially e.g. the ‘Ministry of Defense’ actually being a ministry of war.
• Orwell complained that the UK secret police constantly opened all his letters because he was a commie.
• Room 101 and the Ministry of Truth is basically just satire of the BBC.

As well as cultural changes in the 80s-90s, I think people don’t quite realise how much the internet ‘escaped’ the grasp of governments for the past few decades. By constantly banging the drum of “what about the children D:”, governments are finally just catching up to where we used to be.

I mean sure, but it’ll still likely leave 'em scratching their heads for a while before they go “I guess I just… replace the semicolon…?”