The sixth mass extinction is no longer threatening — it is happening all around us. For instance, many species of trees in the western US are already dead, and the animals that depended on them are dying or dead.

Throwaway clothing (an idea that seems absurd to me) is so widely used that it is a major source of greenhouse gases and plastic waste.

When cotton is used, the growing of the cotton releases fertilizer runoff and competes with food production.

We can hope that people will turn towards rejecting throwaway clothing (and any non-durable clothing), but that involves going against social pressure. Turning the pressure around would have more effect. Perhaps a 300% tax on clothing that appears designed to last less than six months, decreasing to zero for clothing that would last three years. Alternatively, require the store or the "brand" to buy the clothing back within three years, and put up a deposit for doing this.

Another alternative: if you want a design on your body just once, paint it on.

George Monbiot: University research is teaching advertisers how to manipulate people more compellingly.

In the 1980s there was a push to make universities do research that would be more directly useful to business. I suspect this is the result of that.

If you refuse — firmly refuse — to run nonfree software, that will cut a lot of the commercial manipulation out of your life. If in addition you stay off the online disservices, that will get rid of most of the rest. You will still see some ads, but they won't be enough to achieve the intended "cognitive depletion" effect.

Companies impose nondisclosure agreements on people that they fire for reasons they would be ashamed to admit.

Telephone companies and ISPs are pushing for weak federal "privacy" laws in the hope of stopping states from doing anything stronger.

But even "stronger" laws to protect "privacy" only regarding commercial use of tracking people is inadequate to protect against repression.